Yay, it is Friday again, and Fandango has just published his Friday Flashback post. The idea is that he picks a post from this day in a previous year, to give newer readers a better insight into what does and doesn’t make him tick.

I have always liked that idea, so shall also post my own reminiscence. As much as anything, it reminds me of where I was, where I am now, and how far I have come. Hopefully, you will find it entertaining along the way.

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A couple of days ago, without knowing what my Flashback would be, I posted a webcam up on the Dutch coast. I also had a notion to post the link to another site I know, of some webcams in France – nice beachy scenes. So, how weird is this?

Also, would you believe that is is a year and two days ago since the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral? On that night, I heard the drama unfolding and went on the internet to find a webcam, so I could see for myself how bad it all was. I actually found a site which pulled together webcams from all over France.

Now, France is a country I know well, so a couple of days later I looked at the site again to see what other webcams they had. In fact, there were quite a few, including from some of my favourite destinations, not least the Vendée region, shown in red on the map.

The Vendée sits on the Atlantic coast, and has its own microclimate. It tends to get disproportionately good weather, and is driveable from the north coast (we’d arrive at a port due north of the region), so we visited several times. There’s also a bit of history in the area, C16th, Henry IV…

In my flashback post, I included a screenshot of a webcam from a town called Les Sables d’Olonne, in this region. I had a flick through some of these cameras again today. Most of the webcams are still active, although it is weird because they show near-deserted cities, because France is currently very locked down. My weather today is not so good, but here is the same webcam in my original post, a year later!