"Every season has something to give you; if you’ve got your eyes open you can make the most of it..."
Jersey-born Arthur Lamy is a familiar face to visitors and Islanders. With a lifelong fascination for the Island's history and culture, he has become a Blue Badge tour guide and writes regularly on Jersey's historical, natural and cultural heritage.
"People of my generation, we were outside all the time. I've liked the outdoors from the off; the beach was sort of my playground."
As a small community, Islanders are deeply conscious of their rich and colourful history.
"We studied local history at school - it meant you got out of school for an afternoon! - and I think that’s what really developed my interest in Jersey history.“
"The Island has mountains of history, with several rather unusual aspects which have brought us to where we are now. The coastline is ringed with fortifications from various centuries and people come from all over to see the defences in the Islands."
The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by German forces during World War II and memories of the time are still vivid.
"Here in Jersey we even have a beer called Liberation beer. That's how important it is to many people.”
"The German fortifications around the Island are the most obvious, but then you can slip back a century or two to the Napoleonic or Victorian times and our own Jersey round towers, or Conway towers. Then there are one or two Martello towers that came after that. So we were pioneering defensive towers before the English even saw them in Corsica!"
Arthur Lamy's tours are an absorbing blend of Jersey's rich political, architectural and natural history. It's a dream job for a man in whom the landscape and heritage of his home Island are so deeply ingrained.
"The Island is like a big solar panel; it faces south. It comes into bloom in the summer of course; in the mild climate things grow that you don’t find in other places.”
"Walking in Jersey is rather like being in a huge natural department store! Stuff everywhere, trees, birds, wildlife – summer or winter, it's great.”
"One of the beauties of the Island is its size. You could walk through St Helier, walk some of St Aubin’s bay and round onto the west side and fit it all in a morning. Everywhere is in walking distance and it’s not too demanding."
Having lived his life in Jersey, Arthur has never tired of his Island home.
"Quite often I cycle back home past one of our reservoirs when the swallows are feeding. I'll stop and watch the swallows - they’re just fantastic acrobats.
"You never know what’s round the corner - there’s moments that you daren’t miss."
www.arthurthebluebadgeguide.com