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Archive for Chamonix

a journal of the plague and chaos year

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 11, 2025 by xi'an

 Read a novella, The Alchemist, by Paolo Bacigalupi, which has some interesting premises and an original universe, but looses depth half-way to end up with a lame happy ending. Not to be confused with the best seller with the same title, by Paulo Coehlo. And the second tome of Le Chevalier aux épines, by Jean-Philippe Jaworski, which I preferred to the first one, as it is told by the (anti-)hero of Gagner la Guerre. And the “dystopia”  Marine Le Pen présidente, which is a scathing critique of the shallow program of Le Pen’s party, but terribly lacking in the story itself, both dull and unrealistic. With most surprising appearances of Nicholas Khaleb and Yannis Varoufákis… Also read a masterpiece, Solo faces by James Salter, a 1979 novel on climbing solo until one looses faith and confidence. Mostly set in the British community of Chamonix, with a clear impresison of 1970’s France, great paragraphs on climbing episodes, multiple dimensions and depth of the central character, who remains a mystery till the end. Plus What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman, which has some redeeming features but drags much too long to an unsurprising ending.

Made a first jar of roasted almond butter, then a second, and it is likely to become a weekly “chore” along my skyr fabrication (which works most of the time, unless I seed it with the wrong type of yogurt). Recycling the whey in different ways, from the sweet rice pudding with matcha powder to buckwheat galettes, taking much less time than the earlier brunost!

Watched on Netfilx a terrible movie called the Electric State that offers no redeeming feature despite drawing on a massive budget of $340M to support its robotic animation. No depth, no irony, no fun. (And seemingly a complete departure from the original book that is all the opposite!) I also rewatched the second season of Kingdom the South-Korean “period zombie” series, believing it had just come out, until the final episode when I realised I had already seen it…

a journal of the plague and chaos year

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 23, 2025 by xi'an

Read Cairns, a recently published translation (in French, by the Chamonix Guérin Éditions, now Paulsen),  of a Norwegian novel Vardane by Martin Baldysz. Very short but daunting, I was completely taken by surprise by a multi-tiered story that never got where I expected it to go, with much more complex characters than I imagined from their first description, layers after layers of deception and buried secrets, and the ever-present strength (and cold) of the local mountains. A vernacular version of magical realism! Looking forward re-reading it as I am sure I have missed some subtle hints, and reading another Norwegian novel, Fjellet, geværet, vannet (A mountain, a gun, a lake) by Lars Ramslie, which I initially confused with an earlier novel about the same character!

Made a kilogram of roasted black sesame butter, just letting the mixer mix for ten minutes!. And to keep with the Norwegian theme, I made a second attempt at Brunost, which worked better than last time, although missing a few more minutes for it to turn light brown! (Inventing beigeost in the process?!)

Watched Netfilx The Decameron, which obviously cannot compete with Pasolini’s 1971 masterpiece. And is only vaguely related with 1350’s Boccaccio’s  Il Decameron. With modern lyrics from many bands of my teenage years (incl. Devo!) and definitely modern attitudes. Amusing black (Plague) humour, if with lengthy moments and inconsistent characters. With a great anime introduction. And definitely suited for this ‘Og regular diary!

A glimpse of the Moon Blanc Massif [jatp]

Posted in Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , on March 5, 2025 by xi'an

[H]ouch[es]!

Posted in Running, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 16, 2025 by xi'an

While the workshop schedule in Les Houches was rather tight and exhausting, I managed to squeeze in early morning runs as well as one (and only one) later morning ski session on the Kandahar run of Les Houches. Run that was quite nice due both to the quality of the snow and to the low occupancy, as French school vacations were not yet underway. Actually this Alpine week was my first week of steady running since Xmas, as my sciatica re-awoke on the very morning we were leaving for India, as I found out then during a 5am fast & furious run before heading to CDG Airport. It had been years since my sciatic nerve hurt that much and it took me up to my arrival in Chamonix to feel okay enough when running more than 4km at once. To compensate for the loss I turned through January to pool training most mornings but this proved more complicated, both timewise and locationwise, since very few nearby pools open at 7am at least once a week. And they are relatively nearby, meaning an extra 10km of extra biking at the very least each day. Henceforth a significant part of the morn having evaporated by the time I am heading to work. Still this daily training improved my swimming to some extent, mostly my endurance to get over 2km, as my speed only improved at most 10%! As I am preparing for another half-marathon at the end of March, I hope I can get back to the speed and volume reached the past Fall, tant pis for the swimming! (Unless I run to and from the pools.)

more oceanographers in Les Houches

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 2, 2025 by xi'an

ridge6

Our second internal research workshop on privacy, covered  by our ERC Synergy project OCEAN is taking place in Les Houches, French Alps, this very week with 12 researchers gathering for further brain-storming on some of the themes at the core of the project, like algorithmic tools for multiple decision-making agents, along with Bayesian uncertainty quantification and Bayesian learning under constraints (scarcity, fairness, privacy). Due to the small size of the workshop, it will take place in the same local (and uncommon) hotel as last year. And where I had a genuine blackboard delivered (to be donated afterwards to École de Physique des Houches), as the place is not used to mathematicians discussing on and around a blackboard. Even though the schedule does not leave much time for skiing, I hope for a few opportunities, given that the ski cover is quite good this year!