Did you ever see the movie The Forgotten or one of the similar stories where the main character grieves a dead relative but no one else seems to remember this person ever existing? Even the photographs of the family have a mysterious gap where someone’s smiling face might have been. That’s how I felt today when looking at Google maps.

In May, Bill and I were in Normandy, France with my brother and sister-in-law, Brad & Pam, using a beautiful seaside village as a base to explore the area on day trips. If you read a previous post about Bill’s love of the scent of grapefruit and how he said that he would wash and iron our clothes if we had a laundry room with a seaview, then you know the place. On this particular day we had gone to see the tapestry in Bayeaux which tells the story of the Norman invasion of England in 1066. It is believed to have been completed within about 10 years after the invasion and the museum has done an excellent job in preservation and in presentation of the cloth.

After lunch we drove over to the nearby city of Caen, closely associated with William the Conqueror, depicted in the tapestry, who, legend has it, built 2 abbeys in town to attone for marrying his cousin. As we were walking from the castle parking lot to one of these grand buildings we noticed the Google maps street view car driving by. It’s taken 6 months but new images have been posted and there we are…or not, depending upon where you click. They have blended views from this year and last so it’s possible to see our group on the sidewalk in one direction but turn around and we aren’t there. 

Here’s a link but don’t blink or you’ll miss us. http://tinyurl.com/bill-bob-brad-pam-caen  In addition, here are a couple of photos from that day, the first being the fish market and mill in Bayeux and the second is Caen’s Abbey of St. Etienne.