This blog’s Paris bureau chief took this shot from the field, where he is working hard bringing the news that matters to you. This was taken in the café La Frégate, at the top of the rue du Bac. That is the Pont Royal in front of you, and it leads to the Louvre in the background. It was over that bridge that Marie Antoinette’s carriage traveled in her escape from her revolutionary captors holding her and her family in the Louvre. Her coachmen took a wrong turn. He eventually found his way back, got her out of the city, and reunited her with her husband, the king. As you know, they were captured by soldiers loyal to the revolutionary government at a checkpoint some distance from the capital. Some historians speculate that the delay caused by Marie’s coachman screwing up the escape led to their capture and subsequent execution.

Anyway … Paris! Our bureau chief earlier in the day sent me the following image, to bolster my spirits here in the bleakness of winter. He passed the holy place on the rue Montfaucon, and reassured me that all is well there: