The woman in the tourist office thought I was barmy. I had asked if she could
give me the names of child-friendly hotels on the island.
She picked up the accommodation brochure, crossed out a couple of the business
hotels and passed it over the counter. Ah, I thought to myself, so we really
aren't England.
I was in Guernsey, an island full of surprises. Guernsey accepts British
currency and British phone numbers, and people speak English... so I thought
it can't that different from home. I must confess, I had been a bit
uncertain about going there.
We had promised to visit an old family friend but the common reaction was not
encouraging. "You have to be at least 150 to go there," said one
colleague. "It's full of millionaire tax dodgers," said another.
It didn't sound like the right place to take the kids on holiday. But
Guernsey isn't what you expect.
The first surprise came when we arrived in the capital, St Peter Port
(pictured, left), by ferry from Weymouth. We soon discovered that hiring a
car was not so straightforward as Guernsey has its own rules of the road.
The woman at the car hire office patiently explained the differences.
For example, the maximum speed is 35mph and there are special "filter in
turn junctions", where cars from all directions have equal priority and
enter the box junction on a "first come first served" basis, which
can be confusing. Fortunately, hired cars are well marked out with a large H
at the front and back, which warn locals of hesitant foreigners.
Once we had mastered this, we found that we could stay in a seemingly rural
retreat, yet could be in the capital in minutes. Our choice of
child-friendly hotel was St Martin's Country Hotel - which sounds posher
than it is - just two miles outside the capital.
The road sign at the hotel entrance - Beware: Children playing - is a clear
indication of the management's attitude. Inside, 20-month-old Molly and her
friends played happily on the wide staircase leading up from the foyer, as
adults stepped carefully over them, while Florence and Charlie were kept
occupied by the games room, the two pools and a play area in the large
garden.
The hotel is near the south coast of the island, but on Guernsey, everything
is in reach - after all it measures just four by nine miles. For the
children the attractions started on the wonderful beaches, sandy and never
too crowded. There are beaches for all tastes - rocky or sandy, but always
plenty of rock pools to explore.
The times of the tides are well advertised in tourist information brochures,
which can save you disappointment when you set off for a swim. By the beach
at Chouet, in the north-west corner, is a sheltered cafe that serves
excellent seafood lunches.
When the tide was out or the weather turned bad, however, there was plenty to
do. The children's attitude to prehistoric monuments - "boring old
stones" - changed quickly on the first day when they discovered they
could run in and out of the passage graves dotted across the island, such as
Creux es Faies, on the west coast - which is said to be the entrance to
fairyland.
Their favourite was the oldest woman on the island: La gran' mere du
Chimquere, a Neolithic figure standing outside St Martin's Church in the
south of the island. We found her decked with flowery garlands which, we
were informed, was traditional when a wedding is held in the church -living
prehistory.
Florence was particularly taken with a more recent attraction. The Little
Chapel, one of the smallest churches in the world, which lies in the parish
of St Andrew in the middle of the island. Dating from the early 20th century
it is made of seashells, pebbles and broken pieces of crockery.
From there we set off looking for a nearby medieval dovecot, and had some
hairy adventures. What the hire car lady failed to mention was that the
roads are scarily narrow, and cars are expected to drive happily along the
pavement when faced with a 4x4. We found ourselves driving down the
narrowest of lanes, squeezing between high banks on either side. We never
got to the dovecot - but discovered that even the deepest rural seclusion is
never far away from the next row of houses in Guernsey.
The next day, as we headed for St Peter Port, we discovered the disadvantage
of travelling to Guernsey with children: they ask the kind of questions that
leave you floundering for an answer. Such as, why are so many signs in
French when everyone speaks English? Fortunately, our blushes were saved by
the tourist office on the harbour front: 100 years ago most people spoke
Guernesiais, the local French Norman language, but over the years it has
gradually faded, and today the Guernsey patois is in danger of dying out
completely.
Feeling somewhat enlightened, we made our way along the narrow cobbled streets
that wind up from the harbour, following signs for the Guernsey Tapestry.
This is one of those Millennium projects that sounded very worthy, if dull;
but once again, we were pleasantly surprised. The set of ten tapestry panels
was a local initiative that succeeded so well the authorities chose it as
one of Guernsey's major Millennium projects. Put together by volunteers in
the island's ten parishes, the tapestries each represent a century - from
the 11th to the 20th.
The detail is fantastic, and the way they are lit brings out the effective use
of different stitches to create the texture of garments or architectural
features. Everyone was captivated; Florence and Charlie were most intrigued
by the figures being burnt at the stake, but even Molly, who mainly liked
running round and round the room, took to the bright colours and the
animals. The adults enjoyed the audio guide, narrated by the Today
programme's Sarah Montague, a Guernsey lass. In a brief space of time she
explained the symbols that fill each panel and told the listeners enough
morsels about the island's history to give them a taste for finding out
more.
After a picnic overlooking the harbour Charlie wanted to go to Castle Cornet,
the thirteenth-century castle that dominates the port and features in the
tapestry - where trotting round the battlements is free (you pay for the
museums inside). Florence opted to go to No 26 Cornet Street. This National
Trust property recreates a late 19th-century sweet shop, with a counter
running round three sides of the room and the walls all lined with
old-fashioned jars of sweets - Pear drops and Barley sugars and like, though
she failed to share her parents' enthusiasm for them.
At this point we were getting city claustrophobia, and so we jumped in the
cars and headed southwards. While the north and west coasts of the island
are sandy, the south is all rocky, with cliffs rising above the sea. It is
great walking country, with a 28-mile coastal path and lots of rocky inlets
to discover.
On our last day we headed for the Folk Museum in Saumarez Park. Housed in the
stable yard of the old mansion (which now serves as an old people's home)
the museum depicts life in Victorian Guernsey, presenting a kitchen and
classroom and a cider barn, as well as farming and fishing scenes. The park
has magnificent grounds, which we strolled around while the children headed
for the marvellous adventure playground.
Back in the car, we paused to buy ingredients for our ferry picnic at an
admirable Guernsey feature: "hedge veg" are roadside stalls where
local residents trustingly leave their home-grown produce out for sale. We
took some tomatoes and raspberries and left our money in the jar provided -
cunningly using up our last Guernsey pound notes to save having to exchange
them at a bank back in England.
That just left time for our final stop: Le Tricoteur is a factory shop on the
west coast that sells Guernseys - as in the heavy woollen fishermen's
jumpers, not to be confused with jerseys, naturally. Besides the authentic
oily woollen version you can get heavy-knit cotton jumpers too, and our
souvenir purchases kept the children warm out on deck on the ferry home.
When they need new jumpers, it'll be just the excuse we need to come back
and continue our explorations of the island.
Need to know
St Martin's, www.channelhotels.com/stmartins
La Trelade; www.latreladehotel.co.uk (more upmarket than the nearby St
Martins; offers children's menus).
Guernsey Tapestry St James, Hall, College Street, St Peter Port.
www.guernseytapestry.org.gg
The Little Chapel www.thelittlechapel.org
La Tricoteur, Perelle Bay, St Saviour
Value Rent-a-car, tel. 01481 243547, www.valuerentacar.co.uk
Europcar, tel. 01481 237638, www.europcarguernsey.com
Tourist office: tel. 01481723552, www.visitguernsey.com or
www.thisisguernsey.com/whatson
