Yesterday’s Mystery . . . Solved!

It wasn’t really much of a mystery, was it? As many of you figured out, yesterday’s catblogging picture was a sketch of the cathedral at Chartres as seen across the Bouju bridge. What’s amazing in this era of the all-knowing internet is that I could go into Google Streetview and conjure up a photograph taken from nearly the same spot:

The sketch was done by a fellow named Barday, who apparently became well known as a postcard artist in the interwar years. He mostly did drawings of Paris, but occasionally made his way out to the provinces to tackle other postcard-worthy subjects. A quick search suggests that he did several drawings similar to this one, but I think mine is the best of the lot.

This lithograph was purchased by my grandparents during a trip to Europe in the mid-1930s. Barday seems to have taken some liberties with the perspective, and there are a few other odd places where he decided to move things around a bit, but for the most part it looks like the present-day neighborhood surrounding the bridge is pretty much the same as it was 90 years ago. To find it on Google Maps, just type “Pont Bouju Chartres.”

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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