Life on a deserted island or how I came to love Guernsey

Since I moved to Guernsey in early February 2016, I have received quite a few requests to tell you a little about life on this island that almost no Israeli has heard of. So after sharing some photos on the Francophiles Anonymous Facebook page , I found time to sit down and write about some of my experiences so far. If you find this post interesting, I will try to write about my life in Guernsey at least once a month.

So how did I end up living in Guernsey?

It all started with a tour I was guiding in Paris …. While I was in the Latin Quarter, my cell phone suddenly rang and a nice guy on the line, without wasting any time, told me he had an amazing job offer for me. I told him that I was currently in the middle of a trip and that it wasn’t very suitable, but that he was welcome to call when I returned to Israel. And indeed, I barely had time to get off the plane at Ben Gurion Airport and my phone rang again. The guy started describing the job to me and by the minute it sounded more and more “sexy” and winking, but then he said, “Huh… there’s just one more little thing, for this job you’ll have to move to… Guernsey.” The truth is, at that very moment I wanted to say “No, thank you,” after all, who wants to live on a small island thousands of kilometers from Israel that Victor Hugo fled to solely because they kicked him out of Jersey (the big island next door) after he managed to get into a fight with Queen Victoria (previously he had a fight with Napoleon III and had to flee France).

But somehow he managed to convince me to at least talk to the CEO of the company. And so one Friday we talked for over an hour on Skype and at the end of the conversation I realized that this was exactly the role I would like to do now. And so from interview to interview this understanding only grew stronger until we decided that it was best for me to come for a short visit to see if I was a good fit. And so at the end of October I found myself on the island that almost none of you had heard of and I fell in love with it almost at first sight. I won't bore you with all the bureaucratic issues that came later, but after I left my apartment and job in Israel, said goodbye to all my friends and parents (and along the way got stuck in Israel for another month because of British bureaucracy), I found myself in Guernsey.

Guernsey? What is it and where is it?

If you open the atlas (or rather Google Maps) and zoom in really hard, you will discover that between France and England there are two islands. The first and largest of them is called Jersey, and the state of New Jersey in the US is named after it. If you move a little further west towards England, you will discover another island, which is Guernsey. This island has a capital city called Saint Peter Port, and that is where I live. In fact, Guernsey is not a single island. It is a kind of principality that includes several other small islands that are located not far from the island of Guernsey and are called Herm, Sark, and Alderny.

Guernsey has an interesting legal status, although it is part of the United Kingdom, it is autonomous in terms of economic and domestic policy. The reason for this is that the island is considered part of the Duchy of Normandy and is therefore not exactly part of England (nor of France). This French/British duality is clearly felt everywhere you turn. For example, you will find people who speak English and meet in the evening for a beer in the local pub and then go to eat fine French food, and on the way you pass streets whose names are often completely French (for example, I live very close to Rouge Rue). So if you are both Francophile and Anglophile here in Guernsey, you can live well with this internal contradiction.

The people of Guernsey

During the short time I lived in Guernsey, I met a relatively small number of people, so what I will write about now has no real statistical validity. After this experience, I can tell you that the people in Guernsey are simply wonderful. First and foremost, my landlady and her husband, who met me at the airport and took me to the apartment, which they took care to furnish with every good thing without me having to bring almost anything, except clothes. But it didn't end there.

The next day, my lovely landlady took me on a tour of the island and along the way, she completed a round of bureaucracy with me (opening a bank account, social security, etc.) that would have taken at least a week without her. And if all that wasn't enough, she invited me to a wonderful dinner in front of the fireplace at her house and I got to meet her sweet dog named North (I have no idea why, he's originally from Spain). Okay, tell yourself that these are only 2 people on an island with a population of about 65,000. So let me introduce you to my boss who of course already invited me to a family dinner at his house, asked me if there was any furniture he could give me and bought me this hat:

But it’s not just the people I know who are great, but sometimes even just people on the street I meet. For example, on one of my first days on the island when I was a little lost on my way home, I met a young man walking his dog. When I asked him where my street was, he simply took me to it, even though it wasn’t on his route at all, and told me that if I wanted, he would be happy to walk with me and show me Guernsey in the future. But wait, before you think that only nice “fluffs” live in Guernsey, take a look at the sign below, which I took a picture of in the gym near where I live, and you’ll discover that these are after all descendants of pirates and navigators, and that even they can suddenly blow their fuses…

Guernsey weather

You arrived in Guernsey in February, which is the height of winter. Which means it's rainy and cold. If during the day there can still be moments of grace when the sun comes out, in the evenings the cold simply penetrates the lungs and bones. However, there is something about this coolness and the clean air of Guernsey that actually makes you feel as if your body is slowly cleansing itself and the truth is, taking a breath on top of one of the hills in Guernsey feels like you've brushed your teeth with toothpaste with a crazy percentage of mint. Simply a pleasure.

What’s interesting is that as I’m wrapped up in several layers of clothing, slowly climbing the hills of Guernsey, freezing cold, I see a group of young women in shorts and T-shirts stretching for their evening run. So maybe the cold in Guernsey isn’t so bad and it’s just me getting old? Time will tell. In any case, fortunately I’m currently experiencing the “zippiest” season of the year. If you come in the summer, Guernsey will already look like this:

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