The Channel Islands
On the Isle of Chausey
The trip in the gulf of St Malo was also our first real discovery of the Channel Islands. We only knew them as tax havens but these tiny pieces of rock which are sticking out of the sea have in fact a very glamorous history. They comprise two separate countries: the Bailiwick of Guernesey and the States of Jersey. They are British, but do not belong to the United Kingdom. Yet in the past they were ruled by France for only 200 out of the 900 years during which they were at the centre of a war betwseen the two countries. They are partly in the European Union, but directly answer to the Queen in Great Britain.
Channel Islands consists of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Herm, Jethou, Brechou, and Lihou. There is one French islands which is Chausey and was our first place where we went ashore.
They have their own language, a Norman-French patois is still spoken, but everyone speaks english. They have their own banknotes, but deal in familiar pounds and pence sterling.
Living in the 18th century....
The one island which we found very charming is Sark. Around 600 people live there. Sark also has its own language called ‘Serquiais’ . Only 15 people speak it. As you can see no cars are allowed on Sark, anyone on the island that want to go somewhere must either walk, go on a bicycle, or go by horse or cart It became a democracy only in 2008.
Entering St Helier
The port of St Helier on the Island of Jersey was the second port where we stayed. It is a crown dependency of the British monarchy. The territory of Jersey is called a bailiwick because the person who is head of the island is called the Bailiff. The bailiwick also includes the islands of Minquiers and Ecréhous, where nobody actually lives. The island is bigger and over eighty-eight thousand people live on the main island. Thirty per cent of them live in its only town, Saint Helier. 
Being a tax haven, you will find the highest density of Jaguars, Rolls and Aston Martins in the streets. The main langauge is English but along with French more than two thousand people speak Jèrriais, a dialectal form of the Norman language. English tradition on its best… and we are
