“Victor Hugo planted this oak tree 150 years ago, and named it ‘the Oak of the United States of Europe’’”. Our Anglo-French tour guide pointed at a grand tree in the gardens of Hauteville House, where the French writer lived in exile for 15 years.
It was a funny phrase to hear here on Guernsey, the Channel Island just off the coast of France – especially with Brexit just barely in the rearview mirror.
A dependency of the British Crown, like its neighbour Jersey, Guernsey has never been in the EU, but it is in the Common Travel Area and, as such, easily accessible for Brits. Post Brexit, however, the French are required to show a passport to come to the Channel Islands, when previously they simply needed to flash their national ID cards.
But last summer – perhaps partly in the name of unity; certainly in order to make it easier for France’s Anglophiles to visit – a scheme allowing French nationals to make day-trips to Guernsey and Jersey using their national identity cards was introduced. It’s now been extended to the end of September 2024, after the number of French day-trippers rocketed.
“A lot of French don’t have passports,” he observed Rod, a native Guern and guide for Tuk Tuk Guernsey, “so allowing them to come with their identity cards for a day-trip brings a lot more French people in”.
A new direct flight route from Paris also launched earlier this year, indicating a growing French interest in this charmingly eccentric community.
On the crossing from Saint-Malo, I met Marianne and Agathe, a mother and daughter from Avignon, who had spent the previous night travelling back to the South to retrieve Agathe’s forgotten passport. “Alas, there is a border now,” said the young woman, reflecting on her faux pas. The duo were heading to Sark, the car-free island in the Guernsey island grouping (called the Bailiwick), having read about it in a travel book.
Another passenger, Kristelle, was heading to Guernsey on a solo trip to indulge her love of all things Anglais. “I’ve always wanted to go to Guernsey,” she said. “I like the respect and politeness of Les Anglais – the way people queue up neatly to wait for the bus and the whole ‘mind the gap’ thing!”