Spring-Summer Pure Jersey Part 1 with adverts:jersey Cover AW
Spring-Summer Pure Jersey Part 1 with adverts:jersey Cover AW
Spring-Summer Pure Jersey Part 1 with adverts:jersey Cover AW
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J’Aime<br />
<strong>Jersey</strong><br />
06 pure<strong>Jersey</strong><br />
Jennings of the Société Jersiaise, an<br />
organisation dedicated to studying and<br />
preserving all things <strong>Jersey</strong>. He explained<br />
how Jèrriais, the local ‘<strong>Jersey</strong> French’ dialect,<br />
is still spoken by around 3% of the island’s<br />
90,000 inhabitants, but almost 20%<br />
understand it.<br />
‘At one time <strong>Jersey</strong> was a trilingual island,<br />
speaking Jèrriais, French and English,’ he<br />
went on to explain. ‘French is still used as<br />
an administrative, legal and ceremonial<br />
language, a quarter of the population still<br />
speak it, and until 1959 we had a French<br />
language newspaper in the island.’<br />
You don’t have to delve too deep to see<br />
French influences elsewhere. Try any bistro<br />
chalkboard or restaurant menu for a start.<br />
It was a genuine revelation to me just how<br />
universally good the food is in <strong>Jersey</strong>, from<br />
humble beach kiosks to swanky Michelinstarred<br />
restaurants. I was staying at the<br />
newly refurbished Grand Hotel on St<br />
Helier’s seafront. This <strong>Jersey</strong> grande dame<br />
has recently been born again as a glossy<br />
celebrity thanks to a multi-million pound<br />
renaissance, and I think it won’t be long<br />
before there’s another <strong>Jersey</strong> entry in the<br />
esteemed Michelin guide.<br />
On my first night there I’d eaten at<br />
Victoria’s, an excellent, informal restaurant.<br />
But this was eclipsed by my gourmet<br />
experience the following evening. The<br />
Grand’s Tassili restaurant, a partnership<br />
<strong>with</strong> Albert Roux, one of the world’s leading<br />
French chefs, oozes style and sophistication.<br />
It’s chic and contemporary, <strong>with</strong> sleek<br />
service and food that lives up to the<br />
surroundings. I can still taste the seared<br />
scallops and langoustine <strong>with</strong> green pea<br />
purée I had as a starter. The fillet of turbot<br />
<strong>with</strong> almond clams and parsley jus that<br />
followed was pretty sensational too.<br />
At the other end of the scale, I found a<br />
whole crab for sale for a bargain £1.95 in<br />
St Helier’s Fish Market. And I’ve become an<br />
enduring fan of those retro beach cafés<br />
you see everywhere selling fresh crab<br />
sandwiches for less than you’ll pay for<br />
mass-produced supermarket stodge.<br />
There are local specialities too. Bean Crock<br />
(Un Piot et des Pais au Fou) is a <strong>Jersey</strong><br />
adaptation of the French dish cassoulet<br />
using beans and pigs’ trotters. It’s often on<br />
the menu at Hamptonne, a country life<br />
museum based at a large, rambling farm<br />
complex <strong>with</strong> buildings from many centuries,<br />
including Langlois, a house very similar to<br />
those in medieval Brittany.<br />
Hamptonne is deep in the country on the<br />
way to La Mare WIne Estates. <strong>Jersey</strong> makes<br />
the most of the fact that it’s on the same<br />
latitude as northern France by having its<br />
very own, bona fide award-winning<br />
vineyard. It’s here that I met Tim Crowley,<br />
the dynamo behind La Mare. ‘It’s classed as<br />
a French, not English vineyard,’ he explained.<br />
‘Our biggest grape variety is pinot noir,<br />
which of course is a very famous northern<br />
French variety.’<br />
They make cider and brandy too. ‘Cider<br />
is much easier to make than wine,’ admitted<br />
Tim. You can see it all for yourself on a guided<br />
tour of this immaculate vineyard and winery.<br />
BEACH CAFÉS, A JERSEY SPECIALITY THE SEAFOOD IS SUPERB SETTING OFF FOR ST MALO<br />
The views from <strong>Jersey</strong> are another<br />
reminder of how closely intertwined the<br />
island has always been <strong>with</strong> its French<br />
neighbour. Go to the east coast and you’ll<br />
see the Cherbourg peninsula, clearly visible<br />
just 18 miles across the water. In fact,<br />
France is such a short hop away that it’s<br />
easy to build it into a day trip as part of a<br />
visit to <strong>Jersey</strong>.<br />
There’s a roaring trade in day visits to<br />
St Malo and other French ports, as<br />
I discovered when my wife Liz and I took<br />
the busy 8.45am Condor Ferry from<br />
St Helier. In just over an hour we were<br />
sitting in Place Chateaubriand, snug<br />
<strong>with</strong>in St Malo’s tall, fortified walls,<br />
enjoying a café crème.<br />
St Malo’s the perfect day trip destination.<br />
All you could possibly want to see and do<br />
are <strong>with</strong>in or just outside the walls, so it’s<br />
easy to explore on foot. For fabulous views<br />
of sky and sea do as we did and take the<br />
wall walk encircling the town. Then drop<br />
down to street level to the shops and cafés<br />
and follow passageways between sober,<br />
grey-stoned buildings topped by upper<br />
stories in vibrant, doll’s house colours. And,<br />
in a town where you’re never far from a<br />
restaurant or three, you must grab a table<br />
on the terrace and enjoy a glass of wine<br />
and a dish of moules.<br />
The boat left at 5.30pm. In another hour or<br />
so we were back in the Grand’s Champagne<br />
Lounge, sipping the bubbly stuff and<br />
pondering the fact that France and <strong>Jersey</strong><br />
are closer than you might think – in more<br />
ways than one.<br />
1 book online at www.<strong>jersey</strong>.com 07