You find me in Jersey at the end of 4 wonderful days here largely helped by some glorious late summer weather. I've been staying in the capital St Helier but have spent most of my time out and about exploring the island. Public transport here is good with a wide network of buses that run late into the evening, there is also a large network of paths and cycle ways although I would say that the signage on the coast path does leave a bit to be desired. One major disadvantage here is that unlike the Isle of Man, the Ordnance Survey do not include the Channel Islands in their map series which again means way finding can be a little bit irratic.
I've spent quite a bit of time in the South Western quarter of the island visiting La Corbiere, St Brelades Bay and Ouaisne Bay (pronouced Waynay). One thing you notice here is the French influence, a lot of the place names and most of the street names are in French.
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| La Corbiere Lighthouse |
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| The causeway to the lighthouse |
La Corbiere is the site of a lighthouse, completed in 1873 which was the first ever lighthouse to be built using concrete blocks. It is situated offshore but can be reached via a causeway at low tide. The area around Jersey and the adjacent part of France - around Le Mont St Michel - has some of the largest tidal ranges in the world, with the tide going in and out very fast and receding a great distance. It is regularly said that the tide here can out run a horse. This is even greater than normal at the moment because we are at the full moon nearest the Autumn Equinox. When the tide recedes it reveals wide expanses of sand and lots of jagged rock formations that are great for exploration, but you need to keep a careful eye on the predicted times for when it comes in again!
Walking from La Corbiere you can follow the coast path to Beauport Bay and then onwards to St Brelades Bay - definitely one of the most spectacular beaches.
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| Beauport Bay |
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| St Brelade's Church |
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| St Brelades Bay |
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| St Brelades Bay |
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| Ouaisne Bay |
There are some restaurants next to the beach which allow you to sit outside overlooking the sand, munching on local crab and scallops. St Brelade's Bay then leads into Ouaisne Bay and I can recommend the Old Smugglers Inn at the far end of that beach to!
On the east coast of the island, the village of Gorey is dominated by Mount Orgueil Castle. The guided tour here is excellent with the guide pointing out that as Jersey was part of the Duchy of Normandy at the time of William the Conqueror (and therefore on the winning side at the Battle of Hastings), England actually belongs to Jersey and not the other way round - Can we have the same tax system as you then Jersey??
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| Mount Orgueil Castle |
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| Gorey harbour and Mount Orgueil Castle |
The north of the island is much less densely populated than the south. There is a coast path all along the rugged north coast that gives stunning views over to France, Sark and Guernsey. There were also patches where, like at the lighthouse in Dover, the phone signal switches to that in France. Rozel Bay is a picturesque fishing village at the eastern end, while further west is the Devils Hole an area which became a tourist attraction in Victorian times when a viewing platform was built for tourists.
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| The Devils Hole |
Today, being my last full day here, I have traced the recent history of the German Occupation during the Second World War. The Channel Islands were the only part of Britain to have fallen under German control and learning about what life was like at the time was both interesting and disturbing. There were some pretty baisc changes to life that while logical given the circumstances made you think wow I never thought of that - for instance they had to put their clocks forward one hour and go onto European time and the Germans made them drive on the right. Towards the end of the war, with the Allies having cut off German supply routes after the invasion of Normandy, Jersey was brought to near starvation, eventually being saved by food parcels from the Red Cross.
Not far from St Helier is the Jersey War Tunnels Museum situated in a series of tunnels contstructed by the Germans using forced labour from overseas. Towards the end of the war the tunnels were set up as a hospital. The museum charts life on the island from when the British government sent the message that the Channel Islands would not be defended through to liberation on May 9 1945, the day after the war officially ended in Europe.
Moving on to more regular things for this blog - Real Jersey Ice Cream is a definite winner with the top flavour being Cocount that has a PIneapple ripple through it. As for the money - its still paper, the notes are bigger than we now have at home - I'd forgotten that the old £20 notes were difficult to fit in your wallet - and if you thought the Isle of Man was weird in keeping the old round £1 coins, Jersey hasn't got that far as it still uses £1 notes.
Lastly there is a maximum 40mph speed limit throughout the island and in most places it is actually lower than that. The flash cars you see driving around are definitely more for posing in rather than speed.
Next trip will be after Christmas probably still in the UK but travel restrictions are gradually lifting so watch this space ........
