Misc and Mist

 First, the terrible news that the Lions have left the Lion Park.

:)

On Sunday the sky looked like a freeze-frame of choppy waters, all peaks and troughs. By the time I decided I actually would slow the car down and pull over for snap, the effect wasn't so dramatic.

The gate at St.Brelade's Church...

... closer, with Ouaisne beyond.

Compare and contrast : luxury homes, seaside hotel leisure - and the ever-present inevitable :)

Again, a half-hearted rushed snap, trying to get a composition out of foreground and background, and not coming up with much!

Squint a little, and from a distance it looks like a cityscape of towers. Monuments at St.B, and a misty bay behind.

.. the same mist that engulfed St.Aubin's Fort...

 .. and Corbiere

- and to the right, St.Ouen's Bay and La Rocco Tower.

Back to the Misc

Time to dust off some old shots from the last few months that were waiting for a Misc. to get published....

Only the very front of the old chapel was worth saving, apparently.

Inside the old Couperon at Rozel.

The animated billboard screen at Charing Cross didn't last long :)

Empty pool at Havre des Pas starts to get overtaken by the tide...

.. at least the platform has returned after a season or two without it.

The hermitage from a long, blurry, way away.

Art is no match for drunken yobs - they had to take this away.

On a lane between Mont Rossignol and the golf place off the Five Mile Road, stands an old ruin. Overgrown for many years...

.. it looks like someone is hoping to cash in at last.

Jeffrey's leap, was a pleasant spot of grass verge...

.. now with a barrier in the way.

On the other side of Anne Port, the headland was a nice spot of greenery with a view...

.. now spoiled by a pointless granite wall blocking the view of the greenery and scenery. Ensuring that the next accident here will be almost guaranteed fatal - into an unyeilding wall - instead of letting the proper metal barriers do the job they were designed for. But at least the rescue services won't have to put themselves out climbing down the 'cliffs'.

Tourism Decline - Hotels gone

Since the heyday of Tourism in the late 1980s, it's amazing how many hotels have vanished. It seems to be easier to "sell the family silver" and get a huge sudden income from selling up, rather than work away at bringing in a longterm steady income from the asset.

We got a hint of what was to come back in 1980s when three hotels vanished from Greve d'Azette...

and planners must have decided that it was fair game to produce a high-rise zone there.







The Demi des Pas Hotel (Dunes, Edelweiss Restaurant names spring to mind) became Demie Apartments (who wants to live in half an apartment?!) and the Dunes Apartments. We then have South Beach and Le Mondine, and then Maison Victor Hugo that replaced the Victor Hugo Hotel, and Millennium Apartments where the Victoria Baths Hotel once was.


Since that early spate of redevelopment the tourist industry was neglected in favour of Finance, with many States policies reducing the appeal of the island to tourists, and an admitted move to discourage the "bucket and spade brigade" in favour of a smaller number of higher spending 'classier' visitors. The island of cheap entertainments and tax-free goodies vanished along with the buzz that came with it.

So many hotels got flattened and rebuilt as housing, or were converted to appartments. If you see an apartment building that looks like it was once a hotel, the chances are that it was. I'd wager that a significant percentage of islanders live in buildings where there used to be a hotel or guest house, I know more than a few, and that included me, once.


Where there was once the Hotel de la Fontaine, and later St.Peter's Country Apartments and Bobby's Bar - it's now "Clos de la Fontaine" housing.





This one at Greve de Lecq is going...








I hadn't realised the Portelet had been looking sorry for itself for the last couple of years.

We've just heard (again) that Les Charrieres wishes to give up...

and the Metropole too.






There have been numerous changes since the Google Car visited us a couple of years ago. In just the last year...

The Monaco in Parade Road is now...

.. looking sorry for itself.

and the one splendid La Tour at St.Aubin...

.. is being removed.