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As an Englishman, I'm not sure if I can stand many more days of unbroken sunshine - I'm simply not used to it! I am used to the chilly wind though.
This morning I ventured all the way from our flat to the front door of the house for a guided tour of Sausmarez Manor, the price of which is included in our stay.
The de Sausmarez family have been living here for over 800 years, having originated in Normandy. Little remains of the original house, the stonework now forms the basis of an outhouse. The current house is made up of two major phases of construction. The Tudor House is the first, built around 1560. Then around 1714, the Queen Anne portion was added.
The current Seigneur de Sausmarez, Peter, lives here with his wife Rosina. To help make ends meet, as well as house tours they rent out two holiday flats, hold art exhibitions and a weekly farmer's market and Peter himself conducts a ghost tour, of which I shall be partaking tomorrow.
Then we popped back into St. Peter Port to visit La Vallette Underground Military Museum. This is a fascinating collection of WWII memorabilia housed in a complex of tunnels built by slave labourers during the occupation.
The museum sits on the southern edge of town right by the sea front giving spectacular views of Castle Cornet, while our next destination lay not only on the other side but inland, and the land rises steeply from the sea. So, before pushing Mum and her wheelchair all that way, we popped into a handy cafe so I could refuel with an all day English breakfast.
Having checked the map for the shortest route, I think I managed to pick the steepest! Nevertheless, we safely arrived in Candie Gardens, with it's view towards the sea, and made our way to the Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery. We started with the fascinating Celts and Romans exhibition, detailing their influence on Guernsey. One interesting snippet is the believe that Guernsey were friendly and trading with the Romans before they conquered Gaul, probably due to St. Peter Port proving to be such a great harbour, while Jersey remained much more Celtic. This is backed up by the fact that in Jersey, at least a dozen hoards of Celtic coins have been unearthed, totally over 90,000 coins. In contrast, on Guernsey a grand total of 5 Celtic coins have been discovered. Sadly, this exhibition finishes on Sunday.
The rest of the museum was also very interesting, and the art gallery includes Rodin's bust of Victor Hugo.
We then headed back to St. Martins and its parish church. Here stands the Gran'mère de Chimquière. She is a 4,500 years old goddess carved in granite.
Then we sauntered back round the corner to our Manor.
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