As the condition progresses, peripheral vision can become increasingly restricted.
Imagine looking through a window that gradually becomes smaller.
Objects that once appeared at the edges of your vision might disappear.
Eventually, cone photoreceptors — which are important for central vision, fine detail and color — may also become affected.
But RP does not follow exactly the same timeline in everyone.
Some people experience faster progression than others.
That uncertainty makes long-term planning difficult.
The National Eye Institute currently describes RP as having no general cure, although vision rehabilitation and low-vision aids can help people make better use of remaining sight. Researchers are actively studying approaches including gene therapies, cell therapies and new medications.
In 2025, for example, NIH researchers reported experimental work involving eye drops that slowed retinal degeneration in animal models. That research is promising scientifically but should not be confused with an established treatment for children living with RP today.
For families such as the Pelletiers, research offers hope.
But daily life cannot be placed on hold while waiting for future breakthroughs.
Filling Their “Visual Memory”
One phrase became closely associated with the family's journey: filling the children's visual memory.
It is an emotionally powerful idea.
But it is important to understand it in the way the family intended it.
The trip was not a medical treatment.
Travel cannot stop retinal cells from deteriorating.
Seeing an elephant today does not guarantee that someone who later experiences severe vision loss will retain a perfectly detailed mental photograph decades later.
Human memory does not work like a digital camera.
The phrase instead describes the parents' desire to give their children a rich collection of experiences while they could still see them.
The children could look at extraordinary landscapes.
They could watch animals move.
They could study people's faces.
They could see colors and architecture.
But those visual experiences existed alongside everything else.
The sound of an animal nearby.
The sensation of climbing.
The smell of unfamiliar food.
The nervousness before trying something new.
The satisfaction of overcoming fear.
Those memories are multisensory and emotional.
That may ultimately be more important than simply remembering what something looked like.
A Journey That Attracted the World's Attention
As Edith shared pieces of the family's journey online, their story began reaching people far beyond their immediate circle.
Media organizations around the world covered their travels.
There was an obvious reason the story resonated.
It began with circumstances almost every parent fears: learning that their children may face a difficult future that cannot simply be fixed.
But the story did not remain focused on tragedy.
The Pelletiers responded by asking a different question.
If we cannot control everything that happens tomorrow, what can we do today?
Their answer was to go.
That decision eventually caught the attention of filmmakers.
Directors Daniel Roher and Edmund Stenson turned the family's experience into Blink, a feature documentary released by National Geographic Documentary Films.
Roher was already known for documentary filmmaking, including the Academy Award-winning Navalny.
But Blink presented a very different type of story.
There was no need to manufacture dramatic stakes.
They were already present in the family's everyday life.
Turning the Journey Into Blink
National Geographic describes Blink as the story of a family whose world changes when three of four children are diagnosed with an incurable eye condition that can lead to severe visual impairment.
The film follows Edith, Sébastien, Mia, Léo, Colin and Laurent as they travel together and attempt to experience the beauty of the world while they can.
But the documentary does not simply become a checklist of spectacular destinations.
Its deeper subject is how a family lives with uncertainty.
That is what makes the title Blink so effective.
Vision feels permanent to most people.
We open our eyes every morning and assume the world will still be there.
We rarely consider the mechanics that allow us to see a child's face, a mountain, a sunset or the color of the sky.
For this family, vision could no longer be taken for granted.
Yet the documentary's focus is not simply on impending loss.
National Geographic's description emphasizes the family's love, resilience and sense of wonder, and the idea that uncertainty about the future does not have to define the present.