Saturday 28 May 2016

A Rainy Day on Jersey

Thursday, the 12th of May, is quickly told: It rained all day, and heavily enough for us not to want to go for a walk. Instead, we spent the first half of the day in St. Helier's Jersey Museum and Merchant's House, and then took a bus to La Mare Wine Estate for a guided tour.

I liked the Jersey Museum and Merchant's House well enough. A friendly volunteer welcomed us, showed us where we could leave our bags and told us what to find where in the complex of buildings making up the museum, art gallery and merchant's house.
We did not explore the gallery, as we wanted to catch a specific bus to La Mare, but the museum offered plenty of interesting information in well presented displays.

For me, the Merchant's House was what I had most wanted to see: On the museum's website (see link above), I had read that it was a "beautifully restored merchant's house" as you would have typically found in the second half of the 19th century. Visitors were allowed to wander around the dimly gas-lit rooms at will; in the nursery, you could even open boxes and drawers and (if you dared) ride the large rocking horse.
I did like it, I really did... and yet, I missed the glimpses behind the scenes I find so fascinating: There was not one servant's room, kitchen or store room to see, only the wealthy family members' rooms. Never mind, I should not complain, for it was all lovingly done with much attention to detail.

As planned, we took a bus to La Mare Wine Estate, where we only had to wait a short while until the guided tour began. Again, I had expected a little more... we did not see the actual production, although it had been advertised with these words: "La Mare Estate guided tours will take you around the beautiful vineyards, orchards, the Cognac style distillery and the chocolate production kitchen." 
Of course, the rain was nobody's fault but meant that we did not go around the vineyards and orchards. At the distillery, the explanations given were interesting enough, but no work was being done, so we couldn't actually see it happening. The chocolate kitchen - it won't surprise you to read that I was looking forward to that particularly, but we only stood in front of a glass panel between us and the - empty and tiny - kitchen. 
The wine tasting was nice, and we visited the shop, buying a few souvenirs for ourselves and our loved ones at home, but altogether it was not quite what we expected for nearly a tenner per person.
Lunch at the estate was very good, and once we were back in St. Helier, the rain finally stopped so that we could walk round a little bit before taking another bus home to Bouley Bay.

Both the museums and wine estate were interesting, and good options for a rainy day such as this, but we would have much preferred having a little less water coming from above. Still, we made the most of it and consoled ourselves with very nice food and each other's company.

John, here is a picture I took especially for you:


O.K. is now used to me taking pictures and announcing "I want to take a picture of this for Kay, or for John, or..." - it's part of what makes blogland such a nice place for me, this dialogue between us via our blogs and commeting on each other's posts.

12 comments:

  1. Heavy rain can be a bit of a downer but it sounds as if you made the best of it. Perhaps they should have given a bit of a discount for the heavy rain, at the winery. I know what you mean about only seeing the nice bits of the house. Although, I will say that when I am at National Trust properties, they usually have the kitchens, but they look so sterile, because they are not used, so in a way I almost prefer to imagine them. By the way have you ever been to Blists Hill in Shropshire or Beamish museum in Co. Durham, they have volunteers in costume and gives a really great feeling of what life might have been life, as you find them sitting by the fire or feeding the pig!!

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    1. I did another "Rainy Day"-post here, about Harewood House, where the kitchen etc. is often in use to show people how it was all done back in the day.
      As I am always in Yorkshire for my holiday and don't have a car, I've not been to Shropshire, Co. Durham or any other place. But it sounds very interesting!

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    2. And (at Beamish) Proggie Mats. Thanks Jenny. It's years since I was at Blists Hill. I shall put it on my list for my next visit to CJ and Jo this summer.

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  2. I would have chosen a similar way to spend those rainy hours. Too bad about the chocolate kitchen. That would have been very interesting to observe!

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    1. I did buy some (VERY expensive) chocolate from the shop and must say it was good, but not THAT good to warrant a price three times higher than the average choccy I buy at the supermarket.

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  3. As soon as I saw the post box, I knew you would say that photo would be for John!
    Why didn't they deliver the promise of the Chocolate Kitchen? I would have asked for free chocolate at least!

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    1. We all got a nibble of chocolate to take with the wine tasting, as well as a tiny piece of fudge, and the Black Butter (a Jersey specialty) was there for tasting, too. But for 9,95 pounds it could have been a little more, I think, especially as we could not take the full tour around vineyards and orchards.

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    2. PS: I don't know why there wasn't anything happening at the chocolate kitchen when we were there. We must have caught them on a non-producing day.

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  4. Many of the old houses I've been to in the UK do have the servants' quarters on show and there is always the same sparseness showing just how different the two halves lived: except for the butler and the housekeeper in the grander houses where they often had very comfortable accommodation. When I was about 18 I went around Cadbury's new chocolate factory in Moreton on The Wirral. I remember being impressed. (and the staff were allowed to eat as much chocolate as they wanted: most never touched another one after the first week!). I've been round a few 'artisan' chocolate makers and they have been very simple and, to be honest, uninteresting places. Perhaps I'm just getting to the 'seen it, done that' stage in life.

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    1. I think it's the best they can do to allow their employees to eat as much chocolate as they want - it will "cure" them forever :-)
      Harewood was so interesting, because I'd not seen the servants' quarters, kitchen etc. like that in a house of that period. I've been on a special tour behind the scenes at Ludwigsburg palace, but that was older and a lot worse than what Harewood looked like.

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  5. Kitchens are always my favorite places in old and restored buildings. Your day sounded like some we have had on vacation rainy days. The places we visited were just okay.

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    1. It's always fascinating, isn't it, to peek behind the scenes - it helps me to imagine what was involved in running such a big place!

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