Ever since I moved to the island of Guernsey in early February 2016, I’ve gotten quite a few requests to tell you a bit about life on this island that almost nobody has heard of. So after sharing a few photos on the Francophiles Anonymous Facebook page, I found some time to sit down and write about some of the experiences I’ve had so far. If this post interests you, I’ll try to write about my life in Guernsey at least once a month.
So how did I end up living in Guernsey?
It all started during a tour I was guiding in Paris…. While I was in the Latin Quarter, my cell phone suddenly rang, and on the line was a nice guy who, without wasting any time, told me he had an amazing job offer for me. I told him I was in the middle of a tour right then and it wasn’t really a good time, but he was welcome to call me back once I got home. And sure enough, I had barely stepped off the plane when my phone rang again. The guy started describing the job, and with every passing moment it sounded more and more “sexy” and tempting, but then he said, “Oh… there’s just one more small thing. For this job, you’ll need to move to… Guernsey.” Honestly, at that moment I wanted to say “No, thanks.” I mean, who wants to live on a small island thousands of kilometers from home, the very island Victor Hugo fled to only because he’d been kicked out of Jersey (the larger island next door) after managing to get on the wrong side of Queen Victoria (he’d already gotten on the wrong side of Napoleon III and had to flee France before that).
But somehow he managed to convince me to at least talk to the company’s CEO. So one Friday we talked for more than an hour on Skype, and by the end of the call I realized this was exactly the job I wanted to do right now. And so, interview after interview, that feeling only grew stronger, until we decided it would be best if I came for a short visit to see if it was a good fit. So at the end of October I found myself on an island almost none of you have heard of, and I fell in love with it almost at first sight. I won’t bore you with all the bureaucratic matters that followed, but after giving up my apartment and my job, saying goodbye to all my friends and family (and along the way getting stuck for an extra month because of British bureaucracy), I found myself in Guernsey.
Guernsey? What is it, and where is it?
If you open an atlas (or more accurately, Google Maps) and zoom in like crazy, you’ll discover that between France and England there are two islands. The first and larger of the two is called Jersey, and that’s where the state of New Jersey in the United States gets its name. If you move a bit further west toward England, you’ll find another island, and that’s Guernsey. This island has a capital city called Saint Peter Port, and that’s where I live. Actually, Guernsey isn’t really a single island. It’s more of a kind of principality that includes a few other small islands not far from Guernsey, called Herm, Sark and Alderney.
Guernsey has an interesting legal status. It’s technically part of Britain, but it’s autonomous when it comes to economic and internal policy. The reason is that the island is considered part of the Duchy of Normandy, so it’s not exactly part of England (and not part of France either). You can feel this French/British duality everywhere you turn. For example, you’ll find people who speak English and meet in the evening for a beer at the local pub, then go out for excellent French food, passing along the way through streets whose names are often entirely French (I, for instance, live very close to Rouge Rue). So if you’re both a Francophile and an Anglophile, here in Guernsey you can live quite happily with that inner contradiction.
The people of Guernsey
During the short time I’ve lived in Guernsey, I’ve met a relatively small number of people, so what I’m about to say has zero statistical validity. Disclaimer aside, I can tell you that the people of Guernsey are simply wonderful. First and foremost, my landlady and her husband, who met me at the airport and took me to the apartment, which they had furnished with everything I could need, so I barely had to bring anything besides clothes. But that wasn’t all.
The next day, my lovely landlady took me on a tour to get to know the island, and along the way finished off a round of bureaucracy with me (opening a bank account, national insurance, and so on) that would otherwise have taken at least a week. And if that wasn’t enough, she invited me to a wonderful dinner by her fireplace, where I also got to meet her sweet dog named North (no idea why, he’s actually originally from Spain). Okay, you might say, that’s only 2 people on an island with a population of about 65,000. So let me introduce you to my boss, who of course already invited me to a family dinner at his house, asked me if there was any furniture he could give me, and bought me this hat:
But it’s not just the people I know who are wonderful, sometimes it’s just random people I’ve met on the street. For example, on one of my first days on the island, when I got a bit lost trying to find my way home, I met a young guy walking his dog. When I asked him where my street was, he simply walked me there himself, even though it was completely out of his way, and told me that if I wanted, he’d be happy to walk with me and show me around Guernsey in the future. But wait, before you start thinking Guernsey is only populated by nice people, take a look at the sign below, which I photographed at the gym near where I live, and you’ll discover that these are, after all, descendants of pirates and sailors, and that even here, tempers can flare up out of nowhere…
The weather in Guernsey
I arrived in Guernsey in February, which is the dead of winter. That means rain and cold. During the day there can still be a few merciful moments when the sun comes out, but in the evenings, the cold just goes straight into your lungs and bones. Still, there’s something about this chill and Guernsey’s clean air that makes you feel like your body is slowly being cleansed, and honestly, taking a breath at the top of one of Guernsey’s hills feels like you brushed your teeth with toothpaste that’s insanely high in mint. Simply a pleasure.
What’s interesting is that while I’m all bundled up in several layers of clothing, slowly climbing Guernsey’s hills, freezing to the bone, I see a group of young women in shorts and short-sleeved shirts stretching before their evening run. So maybe the cold in Guernsey isn’t so bad, and it’s just me getting old? Time will tell. Either way, I’m lucky enough to be experiencing the “worst” season of the year right now. If you come in summer, Guernsey already looks like this:
Want to read more about Guernsey?
Feel free to check out the article Guernsey: Everything Travelers Need to Know.
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