Guernsey, October 2015

Another short visit to Guernsey last week to see our grandchildren.....

.....Edward.....

.....and Eliza.

One of the highlights of our stay was a trip on the ferry to the island of Herm, about three miles to the east of Guernsey.

We had a walk round the island.....

.....and a look round the souvenir shop.....

.....Edward threw lots of pebbles (and bigger rocks) into the sea.....

.....and Eliza had a walk on the beach.

The lower deck of the ferry was almost deserted on the return trip to St Peter Port.

Guernsey is a popular stopping-off point for cruise liners and that day saw the last visitor of the 2015 season - the P&O Cruises liner 'Arcadia'.

On the Sunday we had a meal at Le Friquet Garden Centre and afterwards Edward had a great time in the outdoor play area.

And Eliza joined him later on the slide.

When we got back home Edward had to show us their sandpit.

Eliza now takes great delight now in feeding herself.

Herm

Herm is a small island about one and a half miles long and half a mile wide and is just three miles east of Guernsey. During our visit to Guernsey Paul and Anna took us there on the ferry.

 Herm seen from the garden of Hauteville House with the smaller island of Jethou on the right.

Leaving the harbour at St Peter Port. The guy on the jet ski on the bottom right followed the ferry for a good part of the journey, cutting backwards and forwards across the wake of the ship. Unfortunately he didn't manage to fall off.

The northern part Herm has sandy beaches whereas the southern half is rocky. This is Shell Beach and at the far end is La Pointe du Gentilhomme, also known as Alderney Point. Unfortunately it was a miserable and not very warm day, but it must be a lovely place to spend some time on a warm and sunny day.

A little bay on the rocky southern part of the island.

Plenty of gulls in the rocky parts.

A view of Jethou Island from close to the one of the landing stages - there are three to cater for different heights of the tide. The smaller island to the right is apparently called Crevichon Island and in front of that are two reefs, Percee Reef and Mouette Reef. In the distance is Guernsey.

A view of Guernsey and St Peter Port from Herm. The ship obstructing part of the view is the P&O liner Arcadia which was on a cruise around Britain visiting Edinburgh, Invergordon, Belfast, Liverpool, Cobh and Guernsey, although because of bad weather it had to stay overnight in Liverpool thereby missing a planned visit to Dublin. If you read this review by one of the passengers you'll see that their opinion of St Peter Port was "nothing much to see in the town except, as many people seemed to have found, a very swish M&S".

Guernsey Revisited

Another place we were taken to by Paul and Anna when we visited Guernsey was Hauteville House, the house where Victor Hugo lived when he was in exile there, and Anna posted some information about it and a photograph at the time. Although I'd read Les Miserables when I was at school, the only thing I really knew about him before this visit was the extremely short and to the point exchanges between himself and his publisher when he was on holiday at the time Les Miserables was published. Apparently he sent a telegram asking what the reaction to the book had been and it contained just a single character: "?". His publisher replied in a similar vein:"!", to indicate the enormous success of the book. There's a Victor Hugo Guernsey website which gives details of his life and in particular details and photographs of Hautville House. Below are a few of the photographs I took of the house.

Hauteville House in Hauteville, St Peter Port - which also houses an honorary consul to the French embassy at London. Anna apparently trying to keep out of the picture.

The Billiard Room

View from the house over Castle Cornet towards Herm and Jethou with the outline of Sark visible on the right-hand side

The Red Room

The back of Hauteville House from the garden

Hauteville House, in the centre of the picture, from Castle Pier