L’Ecluse, Jersey 2023

Date: 15th June 2023

Travelled: 40 kms from Beaumont to St Mary and back

Visited: Touring the North Coast

Stayed: Hideaway RV. €25, N49.20130, W02.16660

Budget: 24 days @ €99 per day

Another quiet evening at Hideaway, although we are joined by a third camper so we now have three neighbours. Not that you would know it, there all very quiet it’s just a wave if that.

It’s another beautiful morning, so we set off not particularly early heading straight for the Jersey War Tunnels. No point leaving before 9.30am as local traffic is diabolical, it seems to disappear after the Mums drop of the kids at school in their Porsche Cayennes. They love their German cars here. Heading north from Beaumont it’s less than 10 minutes on the scooter to the tunnels carpark. Having paid our £16 pp (seniors) we go for a look.

It’s obvious that the Germans having occupied Jersey intended to stay. In the last days before occupation about a third of the inhabitants fled back to England, once Churchill decided not to defend the Channel Islands. Those who remained lived under Nazi rule for almost 5 years as the German garrison in Jersey did not surrender until the German capitulation in 1945.

The Germans would bring around 11,000 forced labourers to Jersey to build the defences, this included these ‘war tunnels’ which were intended as an underground hospital.

It’s all very interesting, there are lots of information panel and displays. It’s more about life on Jersey during occupation than fighting and shooting as there wasn’t any.

So we continue our way up to the north west coast where we left off yesterday. For the next couple of hours we ride up to small peninsula or headlands over looking the channel. There’s always another ruined tower or castle from back in the 14th century once Norman, then French and later English.

Then low down and more difficult to spot bunkers and gun emplacements from the occupation.

Then there’s just interesting things like a fence of pigs, the giant puffins and sandy beaches.

I like my bacon but this guy has a passion

It’s almost 2 pm when we roll into the village of St Mary. It has a Hotel de Ville harking back to its French origins. We walk the Parish Church of St Mary and its graveyard noting many of the older headstones have French rather than English names.

The church is open with some lovely flowers at the entrance. St Mary is a postcard village.