Jersey and Germain

[didache]

Hi all
We had a great weekend in Jersey to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. The hotel really pulled out the stops too - we got the honeymoon suite and a bottle of champagne to boot! The bath was a huge thing made for two - when wifey went for a bath she said 'I'm off to swim a few laps'.
As we were there only from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, I never saw Germain's actually open - they close up for the weekend. Still, this small entrance is the only sign of them. It is in a long row of buildings catering for quite a variety of businesses. The building is two floors and goes back quite a bit so there could be a lot more behind the door than is immediately apparent.

Right in front of it is a marina. At one time ships laden with tobacco would have sailed right up almost to the door of Germain's to be unloaded. These days it is only pleasure craft.

Finally, one of the iconic views of Jersey. This is Mount Orgueil Castle first built in the 13th century. It is a very dramatic place! I had to play with the photo quite a bit as it was grey and piddling down with rain when I took it.

Cheers

Mike

 

[kcghost]

Looks like you had a nice vacation. Germains looks like a tough place to visit.

 

[xingpao]

That is an excellent photo. Sounds like you had a great time.

 

[didache]

Something further. We stayed in St Helier which is the main town of Jersey. There is one 'real' tobacconist in town which I hunted down. I thought it might be good to bring home a few tins of Germain as a nice souvenir.
Half of the shop was turned over to vaping (sign of the times I guess). However, it was the pricing which struck me. There was a sign saying that Germain tins (50g) were £31.99. They also had quite a few (a couple of dozen) loose tobaccos. These were priced at £29.99 for 50g. I was thunderstruck by this because these prices are almost exactly DOUBLE what you would pay anywhere in the UK. It wasn't just tax either - cigs, cigars and RYO were about 'normal'.
I didn't buy anything needless to say. It did look like extreme profiteering to me.
Mike

 

[davidintexas]

Thanks for sharing with us Mike. Glad you had an enjoyable trip. Sure would have been nice to see the inside of Germain's but maybe next time. Yeah those tin prices sound whacky.