Guernsey

A lovely day on Guernsey

We had a long weekend in Guernsey, this is the British channel island, next to Jersey. We were there in late winter, high season is very much summer, so we had the place to ourselves. The way we chose the location was a bit funny, it was more of where can we fly from city airport that we haven't been before, which isn't someplace like Frankfurt. And Guernsey came up. It's a cool place for a weekend break, we didn't explore that much, just stuck around St Peter Port, even there it was a cute little town to stroll around.

I think if we were to go back I would make more of an effort to cycle around the island. It seems that's the way to get around the island for tourists. Guernsey is pretty small, and the roads are supposedly speed limited at 30mph, though the taxi to the airport definitely didn't feel like that. I would also try and get out to the other islands, Sark and Herm and maybe Aldernay. I think there are also some nice beaches around, the water did look nice when the sun was shining, though I think I would need to be wearing a wetsuit to really enjoy a swim. It is still the English Channel after all.

The lighthouse at the end of the breakwater

Visiting Guernsey had a little of the same feel as Belfast did, in that they seem to be trying very hard to convince everyone of their Britishness and yet nearly all the roads/place names start with either Le or Les. The food is an interesting mix of British and French, with awesome seafood. These islands are pretty weird, they are British crown dependencies, and yet aren't part of the UK, they are independently governed. They are actually the last bit of the Duchy of Normandy that the English crown used to hold. And yet they are something like 20km from France.

Since we were there in off-season I think the ratio of tourist to business traveller was very much the opposite way from the high season, which probably made it feel weirder. We were surrounded by lawyers and what felt like tax evaders. I'm watching the Night Manager at the moment, and some of the other people in the hotel felt very like the Richard Roper character. I'm not saying that they were international arms dealers, more that they travelled in entourages, and were supremely rich. I don't normally stay in the same hotels as those people, their price range being far above mine, but it was off-season, and I guess the hotels have to fill the rooms somehow.

The most famous occupant of Guernsey must be Victor Hugo, he lived there when he was exiled from France. He wanted to leave France, but be somewhere that still spoke French, so Guernsey it was. He tried Jersey first, but wrote articles in the local newspaper that weren't very favourable to Queen Victoria, and they kicked him off. He actually wrote Les Miserable whilst he was on Guernsey, they will tell you this fact many times while you are there. You can visit his house, though it's only open in the high season.

Castle Cornet with the breakwater

Steep stairs on Guernsey

They also have a pretty cool castle, Castle Cornet. This was built on a little rock island completely separated from Guernsey, when it was first built it was a mile off the shoreline. In the past you had to sail across with supplies, and there was only a small beach and door through which you could come, this was only accessible at low-tide. Now there is a breakwater connecting it to the island so you can walk out to it. The first castle was built in 1204 when King John lost the last bit of Normandy to the French king, but the islands remained with the English. He built a castle here to stop French invasion. During the civil war Guernsey declared for Cromwell, but the castle remained royalist. The island laid siege to the castle, which was the last royalist stronghold to surrender. It was a pretty interesting place to visit, and went over a lot of the history of the islands.

The breakwater was pretty cool too, the weather was pretty bad when we were there, with a real gale blowing. There is only a fence on one side of the breakwater, and with the gale blowing it really felt like you could be dumped into the water.