Man Bieau P'tit Jèrri

Jersey is a channel island near France that has a unique political identity.  It is a crown dependency (protected by the United Kingdom) but has the power of self-determination.  It has a population of about 90,000 and is about 9 long and 5 miles wide.  It is about 14 miles from France so on a clear day you can see the coast of France and a lot of their architecture is french. 

Emily and I visited Jersey recently to visit a friend (Kit) who is a local musician and is working to help save the native language, Jèrriais.  

After arrival we went with Kit to The Crab Shack and got fresh seafood. 

 

The meal was lots of work, but when on an island, you have to get fresh seafood.

 After a relaxing night we went out on our own to Mont Orgueil Castle.  It was built over 600 years ago and has defended Jersey from the French ever since. It has lots of nice history, and everywhere you turned there was another passage way with something new to explore.  We also really liked how they integrated art into the castle from local artists in order to help you better interact and learn on your visit (see the knight for example).

The castle and the beach

Inside the lower ward

 

Some art in the castle

A little dress up for us older kids

After the castle we walked along the coast to get a geocache and then Kit took us on a driving tour to various historical sites in search of dolmen, neolithic grave sites. We spent most of the afternoon outside in the sun and searched (sometimes in vain) for these sites labeled on our map.  This wondering around the island, however, showed us sights many people don't get to see.  We walked along the north east coast and saw the dramatic cliffs and ancient battlements.  

 The Dolmen, with some semi-modern changes to how it sat for hundreds of years

Our second day we were off to the north west of the island to explore the beaches, bunkers, and ruins.  The Nazis controlled Jersey from 1940-1945 and Hitler was very proud that he controlled part of the UK.  So much so that he was not ready to give it up without a fight.  He set out to make the island a fortress.  Over 40 Nazi bunkers and fortifications still exist on the island, with miles of tunnel and other ruined battlements.  The most impressive is near an ancient castle and the spot of our hike.  We set of on a quest to find a geocache that ended up taking us 2 hours to find and in the end, the gps was out of batteries but we managed to make the final find and sign the log.  (See pictures below)

 

Our adventure began with an impromptu tour via construction workers

 

The castle ruins

 

The Nazi ruins, such an impressive bunker.  It has 5 floors.

 

In the middle left of the shot you can see another bunker, they were everywhere!

 Signing the log of the Geocache

We spent our evening eating fish and chips in "town" (what the locals call St. Helier) and took the bus home as Kit was going to a political rally.  Once again, taking public transport outside of London makes you appreciate how frequent and convenient public transportation is in London (as we waited 40 minutes for the next bus going our direction!) 

Our final full day in Jersey found us in the Jersey War Tunnels (built by the Nazis to hold ammunition and later turned into a war hospital).  It was a great vision into the past, a look at occupied Jersey.  Kit talked about how his father and other locals were around for the occupation.  It was some of the only British soil taken over by the Nazis.

The rain was coming down for our final day so we drove around the island in search of things to do inside.  The afternoon found a bit of sun so we decided to search for more historic sites.  We found a nice old Dolmen that was unlike any other on the island.  However, on our trip back to the car, the wind and rain picked up and we got hit by mother nature.  

 

This was said to be 6,000 years old!

We spend our final evening downtown listening to the band Kit is in, Badlabeques.  They are a band of local musicians that sings in the local language of Jerriais.  Kit is doing a similar masters degree as me (MA in Ethnomusicology), he is trying to revitalize the language in Jersey using music and Ethnomusicology.  You can check out their music at www.badlabeques.net (you can download their Christmas album for free).  

 

The Band (Kit in the middle playing Guitar).  

The accordion player in the left of the screen is actually a local politician who gave us a little history on the politics of the island.

Stay tuned for the next installment, the visit of the Stover Sr. family.

Brandon