Blogs from Channel Islands, Europe

Getting excited - the e-bikes are charged and ready to go; weather report good. On the ferry at 18.25 to St Malo - an overnight stay and then the train! For those not familiar with St Malo - a potted history! The ‘Cite’ is the original town, once surrounded by the sea and virtually impregnable to aggressors - the inhabitants were a cocky bunch who didn’t consider themselves French or Bretagne. Untouchable? During the interminable wars with the English they engaged in piracy and smuggling, then moving on to exploring North America. During WW2 the town was flattened by American bombers in the Allies attempt to secure a working port after D Day. Nowadays it is an extremely popular tourist destination with some lovely beaches to the east of the Cite and plenty of restaurants in ... read more

Lihou Island, the Most Westerly Channel Island A quarter of a mile off the west coast of Guernsey, Lihou island is a small heaven of peace and beauty, only accessible by foot when the causeway is uncovered. Gill took us across the tidal causeway where just a couple of hours earlier the area would have been completed covered by the sea and the island cut off. On the walk across parts of the causeway had granite blocks deeply imbedded these were created to help the horses and ponies take a less perilous walk when shifting supplies. On the island we saw the ruins of the priory of St. Mary which is believed to have been established by Benedictine monks in the 12th century. The monks of the priory were by no means generally popular with the ... read more

21st January Guernsey - St.Peter’s Port Despite being a relatively small island, Guernsey’s history is long and fascinating. Inhabited since prehistory, it became part of the Duchy of Normandy in the 10th century. The Channel Islands came under the British crown when William, Duke of Normandy invaded England in 1066 and seized the crown. A fascinating fact is that even today, the Queen’s title in the Bailiwick of Guernsey is that of the Duke of Normandy, the local toast being, a little bizarrely, ‘The Queen, Our Duke’. The Bailiwick of Guernsey is a Crown Dependency, meaning that the Queen is the head of state but it is self-governing. The island prints its own banknotes, including the £1 note, but theirs is not a separate currency, just a local issue of Sterling, with the same value as ... read more

Dear All Greetings once more. This is my third and final blog entry for my pre-Christmas mini trip to the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It was a lovely end to my lovely little trip exploring more of these British Isles, coming to realise that Great Britain, although the largest, is certainly not the only island in this beautiful corner of the world. I feel I would like to explore more of this island nation I call home, there are plenty more islands to choose from in the future – the Isle of Man, Orkney and Shetland are all calling, at some point hopefully in the not-too-distant future. For now I was content to complete my explorations of Guernsey, and on my second full day on the island, I was planning to explore the northern and eastern parts. ... read more

Dear All Greetings! I am currently in my lovely home in London, but have just recently completed a mini pre-Christmas break to the Channel Islands, once more. Once more, as this time last year, I spent a few days on the lovely little Channel Island of Jersey – this year I decided to spend some time on Jersey’s sister island, just 27 miles away, and booked five nights to explore the Bailiwick of Guernsey just before Christmas. I had a lovely little time there, Guernsey being an even smaller, cuter version of Jersey, and I aim to write up about my time there over the course of three blogs, starting with this one. So on the Saturday following the end of term, I flew Guernsey’s very own tiny airline company, Aurigny (pronounced oh-reeny) from nearby Gatwick ... read more