So, why visit Guernsey you might ask?
My interest in Guernsey was first piqued many years ago when I read and then watched The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society, a fantastic story set during the Second World War when the Channel Islands were the only British territory to be occupied by the Germans.
More recently, family discoveries have uncovered a direct link to the Sausmarez family, some of whom are still in residence on the island, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to go knock on the door and say “Hi we were in the area….”
The ferry left from St Malo and so with some trepidation we left the trusty Citroen in the terminal car park and boarded the Condor Voyager for the journey of just over two hours direct to St.Peter Port.
The ferry was impressive – she can carry 850 passengers, 235 cars, has two bars, a café, a duty free shop (doing a roaring trade) and most interestingly, was built in Tasmania!
The sailing was calm and after disembarking we made our first mistake…. choosing to walk with our overnight duffle bags (‘non-wheelable’) and heavily packed backpacks to our Air BnB which was uphill.
Arriving sweaty and red-faced, (me anyway) we let ourselves in to our beautiful apartment and all was well. Our lovely hostess then offered to drive us to the airport where we picked up our hire car, our second mistake.
Many blogs that I had read had suggested that one could rely on the bus network on Guernsey but of course wanting to be in control of my own destiny I had booked a (manual only available) car. Tiny roads, almost non-existent parking and some hairy eight or nine point turns involving multiple hand brake starts later, I was happy to return it on our last night. It did however do the job and we returned it with both us and it unscathed.
Sausmarez Manor (the ancestral home of the rellies) hosts amongst other things (such as ghost tours and garden parties), the Guernsey farmers market and it was on the next day.
We found the Manor, parked in an empty car park 🤷♀️ and wandered around until we came to the tea rooms where I found ‘Rob’ who kindly told us that the forecast had been for bad weather so the market was called off… He said this whilst glancing sheepishly at the brilliant blue sky above.
I asked if he was family, (he wasn’t) and then explained my reason for visiting from Australia and he exclaimed “come with me, we’ll find Peter!”
Peter turned out to be SEIGNEUR Peter de Sausmarez (probably 6th – 8th cousin Peter 😉) who was absolutely delightful. We spent a couple of hours having ‘tea’ with him and learning a lot about our family connection, famous ancestors and the Guernsey way of life. He apologised for not replying to my subsequent emails (I had received a reply from him initially many months ago but he had been unwell in the interim.)
He gave us his top Guernsey tips and we set off to find the cliff top walk that he had recommended.
It wasn’t far away and once we found the right starting point it was spectacular (pictured in header) and featured soooo many flowers, a situation we would see repeated all along the coastline of Brittany as well in the coming weeks.
Next on the list was the German Occupation Museum – the life long collection of one man and despite me initially just going along for the ride, (it was really Russell’s cup of tea) it was totally worth the modest (cash only please) entrance fee.
Apart from huge amount of actual articles displayed there was a plethora of diary entries, newspaper articles, German posters and ‘rule’ lists which gave a real appreciation of how the locals fared during the Occupation. We learned that the reason Sausmarez Manor had not been occupied by the Germans as many other stately homes had been was because the Seigneur (Cecil) at the time had refused to have electricity installed 🤣
The following day we visited Saumarez Park – note no ‘s’ in the spelling – Peter had explained to us that this is the other branch of the family on the island (the “smart branch,” his words) and in fact is the one my ancestor stems from.
This stately home and grounds are now owned by the island and the extensive grounds are well utilised by the public for many recreational activities.
We had lunch in the tea rooms but didn’t linger too long as we had more rellies to catch up with….
…… in Candie cemetery!
We found a number of de Sausmarez, Dobrée and other familiar names including my 4 x great-grandfather!
The cemetery itself was very picturesque, offering a nice view of the sea and totally worth the excursion.
During the day I had received a lovely email from Peter inviting us back to the manor for “drinks and nibbles” and so at 6.30 we found ourselves in the sitting room with Peter and his partner Rosina and once more discussing the family tree. We had an interesting tour of the house and its collection of memorabilia accompanied by Peter’s wonderful story telling, a lovely conclusion to our time on Guernsey.
On our last morning we managed a little bit of retail therapy before saying goodbye to Guernsey and departing by ferry in the early afternoon. The return trip took a little longer as we briefly stopped off in Jersey en route and was a whole lot noisier with two school groups of very excited kids visiting France.
We arrived back into St. Malo in time to check into our hotel and take a quick walk to a nearby restaurant (featuring the Australian flag on the ceiling?) before retiring for an early night.
Tomorrow it is on to another cottage in western Brittany, new ground for us 😊