Channel Islands Part 3: St Peter Port, Guernsey

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St Peter Port bench with a figure of Victor Hugo by Mark Cook

When we originally planned our Channel Islands holiday, the transfer between Jersey and Guernsey was intended to be by ferry. However no ferries were running for long and complicated reasons, so our travel company booked us onto a flight. We were in the air for 9 minutes 58 seconds and for this we wasted almost a whole day: picked up at 10am for a 12 noon departure which was delayed for over 2 hours. There is not a lot to do in Jersey Airport! We didn’t get to our hotel in St Peter Port till about 4pm so there wasn’t much time for anything but a quick exploration of the town before dinner. Highlights in the gallery below include the oldest surviving pillar box, a statue of Victor Hugo who lived in Guernsey for 15 years, and a large poster looking forward to the celebrations for the 8oth anniversary of liberation from German occupation.

Duke of Normandie Hotel
Old town
Old post box
Old post box
Old post box
St James
Victor Hugo statue
Priaulx Library
Victoria Tower
Candie Gardens
St Peter Port Harbour
Liberation celebrations

We fared better on our way back to Jersey a few days later – a late afternoon flight gave us time to explore Castle Cornet in the morning. Originally built on a rocky islet in the 13th century, today it can be reached along Castle Pier. We enjoyed looking around its various parts and the views back to St Peter Port and out to the lighthouse.

Castle Cornet plan
Castle exterior
Model soldiers
View of lighthouse
Sutler’s Garden
View of St Peter Port
Museum building
Governer’s Garden
Cannon
Castle Cornet looking towards the town

We were there for the daily ritual of the noon day gun when two (rather elderly) red coats fired a large cannon. It was loud! Much louder than it sounds in the video, which ends abruptly where I edited out the bit where John’s hand jumped so much that his phone was directed at the ground.

Preparing to fire
Proudly posing afterwards

Before making our way back to the hotel to be picked up we finished by walking out to the lighthouse.

Castle Breakwater Light

My final Channel Islands post will cover the walks we did while staying on Guernsey, including a day trip to the car-free island of Sark.

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  1. Don’t you hate wasting a whole day in an airport, especially for a 9-minute flight?!! How frustrating. It’s fun to watch your video of the cannon shot by the “elderly men.” Funny, I noticed a post where Jo also wrote about an “elderly man.” I wonder what we mean, when we ourselves are around 70, by that term: 80 or 90? Soon we will have to admit to being the elderly ourselves! Lol.

    That fort looks like a cool place!

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    • The flight was ridiculous. In my opinion, elderly is always at least 10 years older than I am. I was not amused to read that the victims of the Australian mushroom poisoner were “elderly” – 66! To be fair, I meant the guys shooting the cannon were elderly for soldiers who are usually strapping young men, which they certainly weren’t.

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  4. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #447 – Thistles and Kiwis

  5. Nice postbox, Anabel, and Castle Cornet too. You seldom appear in my Reader so I have to backtrack to find you, so I’m glad you commented today. I look forward to Sark xx

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  10. St Peter Port is a lovely town isn’t it. I thought it was nice than St Helier and glad you got out to Castle Cornet (and yes the canon is loud!).

    Sorry about the travel situation. I think until about 10? years or so ago Condor Ferries used to run 2 boats from the UK (from both Pool and Weymouth) to the Channel Islands and I think for a time to Cherbourg or St Malo to and another boat dedicated to running between the islands and St Malo. There were up to 4 crossing a day in peak summer months from the UK to the islands.

    However they (Condor) got acquired by the Austrlian bank Macquarie who did the usual of trying to take as much money out of the business for themselves as possible and leave it loaded with debt. As a result Condor sold two of the boats they ran to a Greek company and bought a new boat which was produced by the Austrlian boat manufacturer Austal on spec without any buyer (in the hope someone would then buy it) to try and keep staff employed and hadn’t been used for several years. No one had bought it but then they (Austal) were also bought by Macquarie so obviously a huge concidence that Condor suddenly expressed interest in buying this boat and renamed it Condor Liberation.

    It only ran one crossing a day (after a brief attempt at overnight sailings, which were very lightly used) from the UK and only from Poole (and Weymouth and Portland Council spent a lot of money which was wasted in repairing the quay at Weymouth on the promise Condor would keep sailing from there only for them to pull out and only operate from Poole). It always went to Guernsey first then on to Jersey. I don’t think either island was especially happy with this but if I remember right Condor was the only company that bid and neither island wanted to subsidise the service so largely got Condor by default as the only bidder.

    I think Jersey were particularly unhappy with this in the longer term. The boat was not as good as promised to be (Condor said it would be able to sail in rougher seas, but it seems the reverse was true) and being larger it was less able to dock in the ports, especially if the tide was low. It also seemed Condor were also much less inclined to pay staff overtime by then so any delay on the Poole to Guernsey leg often meant it got cut there and returned to Poole and missed out calling at Jersey at all. In addition because everyone going to Jersey had to sail to Guernsey first making for a much longer crossing (there used to be non-stop ferries to Jersey from the UK).

    I think that is the reason Jersey didn’t want Condor again (who have since been bought by Brittany Ferries) and so the islands gave the contract to different companies, creating the mess we have now. Of course a big causality was trips between the islands. They seem to have rather late on, realised this was a problem and there is now a new company “Islands Unlimited” that starting running boats between Guernsey and Jersey a few times a day, which started about a month ago (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly3p927w68o) but I am guessing that was too late for your visit.

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    • Yes, that was too late for our visit though the people who explained the situation to us (essentially a summary of what you have described) told us it was in the offing. In my naivety I had assumed Jersey to Guernsey would be a regular ferry service much like the Arran run. Hopefully the new service will succeed in making that the case.

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  12. How annoying that the ferry was cancelled. Were there not private boats you could have used? Presumably the one to Sark was running. Thank you for not only an interesting bench, but the oldest post box too. A shame about the dodgy paint job.

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  15. .Oh Anabel, I’m so sorry you lost an entire day due to the ferry cancellations. That isn’t right, especially if the flight is only supposed to be ten minutes. Thanks for the wonderful photos of the island. I didn’t listen to the cannon video, as Maya is sleeping right next to me at the moment. .

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  16. The gun salute reminded me of the grand-dad in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film for some reason. Probably the costumes and the semi comical movements. Seen a TV series set on Sark decades ago. ( Mr Pye 1986) The one and only time I can think of it got a mention/ starring role. Nice island though. Bob. BSS.

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  18. Pleased you arrived safely as your photos showed some interesting places to visit. Looks like the castle had many different sections to visit . I enjoyed the firing of the gun …bit like Laurel and Hardy! Great lighthouse shot.

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  23. Wow, I’ve never had a flight that lasted less than ten minutes! We didn’t get to Guernsey so I was interested to see a bit of it through your eyes and I’m looking forward to seeing more in your forthcoming post too. I love that last photo of the lighthouse, with its perfect symmetry!

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  26. I think I would have had my fingers in my ears when that cannon fired. I like the view over the port but favourite is the post box. It’s nice to know it’s still in existence although the paint job round the V I looks a bit slapdash.

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