A Weekend in Jersey

 As a 40th birthday gift, my long-time friend, Dawn bought me a plane ticket to a secret location. She agonised as her prerequisites were: somewhere new; somewhere close-ish; somewhere with a reasonably priced flight. And so I rocked up at the airport with my passport and weekend bag none the wiser.

It transpires that to travel to Jersey from the UK, you don't need a passport but that would have given the surprise away and so we boarded our 45-minute hop to one of Britain's three crown dependencies just off the coast of Brittany, France. Dawn and I spent a lot of time trying to ascertain the status of Jersey. Is it a country in its own right? What does the passport look like? Where do taxes go? 

Our deep dives only offered us more questions but, officially: 'Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with its own financial, legal and judicial systems, and the power of self-determination.' Thanks, Wikipedia! The island's relationship to the British crown is constitutional only; officially it is NOT part of the United Kingdom. 

But that's interesting for lots of reasons: the British pound is the official currency; the national language is English; cars drive on the left. And given we were there during the official mourning period for Queen Elizabeth, the pomp and circumstance for her was everywhere. 

Fortuitously, this also meant that lots of heritage properties were free to the public the weekend we were there. This is how we ended up on a charming tour of Mount Orgueil Castle, on Jersey's east coast. 

From the town of Gorey, every vantage point offers a view of the sea. Our wanders took us past beaches, groups of cyclists, wild swimmers and myriad families with dogs taking their time. The pace was unrushed and a wonderfully stark contrast to the busy of London. 

The restaurant scene on this part of the island is also pretty comprehensive. We accidentally discovered the The Crab Shack (listed in both Gorey and St Martin), an homage to all things crab and seafood. Between loaded crab fries and crab tacos, we were in heaven. Due to its proximity to France, champagne was also reasonably priced and so Dawn was able to help me check off on of the 40 things on my 40 for 40 list: drink champagne somewhere beautiful. Winning. 

On Sunday, using very good local public transport, we made our ways with bags to the (slightly) more bustling capital in St Helier and hopped on a local bus tour. We were pleasantly surprised. The open-top bus gave us the west coat highlights of this 45-square mile haven, taking us past St Aubin, the German Memorial, St Brelade's Bay and finally to La Corbiere lighthouse. 

We learned about Jersey's Nazi-occupied status during WWII and, given more time, would have opted to go to the Channel Island Military Museum. There's a lot of money on Jersey and we also got a glimpse of the fancier houses tucked away on this half of the island. 

Our weekend kind of ended there, with only a small glimpse of this tiny not quite a country but not not a country isle. I'd love to go back, take the ferry to Guernsey and back and soak up the sun, beautiful beaches and charm of this place. Definitely worth a visit.