Nydia, blind girl of Pompeii, one more time

I just love this statue -- so naturally I couldn't resist a repeat with a few additional images. Sculpted by Randolph Rogers (1825-1892), the statue depicts the slave girl Nydia, a character in the 1834 best-selling novel The Last Days of Pompeii by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. During the eruption of Vesusvius, using only her hearing because visibility is virtually non-existent, she leads a group of survivors out from under the cloud of smoke and ash

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Day 1 in Annecy Morning

[20 April, Easter Sunday] OK, so our morning wasn't actually spent in Annecy per se. Still the bus said Annecy City Tour. . . We had our tickets in hand for a bus trip to Gorges du Fier and Chateau Montrottier . It was raining lightly as we finished our breakfast and then made the five-minute walk to the town's Hôtel de Ville. There we joined a few other tourists also waiting for the bus to take us to the gorge. Numerous vendors were undaunted by the weather as they were setting up for the day's big market of mostly gimcracks and geegaws with some food. The bus arrived right on time, and our little group of maybe 16 or so got aboard and out of the cold rain. It was a pretty quick drive out of greater Annecy and through the green countryside. As we pulled into the parking lot I noticed a restaurant I had seen from the train the day before -- and indeed we would see several trains speeding through the valley as we walked to and from the gorge. parking lot Once off the bu...

Wife saves husband

[from Susan VandenBerg, 1/7/1025] To those of you who know Steve (and are perhaps very fond of him) I’m reporting that on New Year’s Eve soon after we had finished dinner, he collapsed suddenly, unresponsive with dusky color and gasping breaths. I immediately responded with CPR and calling 911. Medics arrived in due time and continued CPR along with defibrillation which put him back into a regular rhythm and some return of respiratory effort. He was transported to Butterworth ER and stabilized with intubation and sedation. I/medical personnel feel this was a dangerous and potentially fatal arrhythmia most likely caused by some scar tissue in the heart from Steve’s previous heart attacks. In that case the scar can interfere with the electrical circuits in the heart, disrupting the normal rhythms. There are a number of other details that I could share with you, although that really isn’t that important at this stage. The crux of the matter is that, if I hadn’t been home when he coll...

Off to Paris and Home

[22-23 April] We were packed and ready to go by 9:00am. After last-minute tidying up we left the apartment keys on the table, hauled our bags down the two flights of stairs and walked the 10 minutes or so to the train station. Our train was on time and we got right on board without jostling with crowds. The train ride back to Lyon was smooth and quick and we enjoyed the scenery just as much as on our way to Annecy. We made a point of looking out for the Gorges du Fier on our way out of town. That was pretty cool. Our train arrived in Lyon on time and since we had a couple of hours before our connection to Paris we grabbed a bite of lunch. Our TGV high-speed train to Paris arrived on schedule at platform G and boy was it packed!. Our luck held out though and our assigned coach stopped right in front of where we were standing! We walked on, stowed our bags and headed up to the top deck and our seats. The ride was fast, really fast, and we pulled into the Gare de Lyon in Paris...

Les Flâneurs

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