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| One of the 40 life sized gorilla sculptures scattered around town. I love the colorful bees on this one |
While at the museum, we visited a restored Victorian house that you can walk through with many flights of stairs. Although, there are newly added elevators that help us old folks!
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| Sitting area in the Ginestet victorian home of the 1800’s. Notice the auction tags on the chair and table |
The story around this house is that in 1869, Charles Ginestet persuaded his wife that they should abandon their beautiful home and flee to France.
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| Dining and entertaining area. A lot of gold and mahogany |
Sadly they would leave behind their friends and family but a mountain of debt and legal proceedings.
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| Canopy style bed. The furniture looked heavy and expensive |
To the outside world, the departure seemed sudden however the Ginestet’s had been planning for a long time. The house and its contents had been advertised in the local press and auction.
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| Medical supplies. |
Dr. Ginestet owed more than 5,000 GBP to the bank, in today’s dollars that is about 3 million pounds and it took legal proceedings to stop the auction and seize this assets.
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| The Nursery. Rumor has it one night a night watchmen heard a noise while locking up the museum and this rocking horse was moving as if a child was riding it. He is no longer working the night shift! |
By August 1869, the couple was living in a disarray. In a letter written to his sister, a nephew wrote to his sister after first visiting his Aunt & Uncle on how the house looked and the family was living.
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| Working pinball machine made from marbles |
The auction had been postponed and they were living among packing suitcases and auction lot numbers. In the pictures you’ll see these lot tags on all items.
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| Staff’s quarters. The notices stated if the house sold, the staff would be staying on if needed. |
On August 29, 1869 the nephew wrote again stating “The Ginestet’s have slipped their cable and bolted to France leaving their lawsuits behind them. I hope that they will do better there than they have there.”
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| This display of miniature rooms were on one side of the walls. Lady Rhona Guthrie would create these rooms and write tales about their imaginary inhabitants. It was like a small dollhouse in a wall |
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| This miniature store added a cute touch. I cant imagine how tedious it was to make this |
It was an interesting old house. The furniture looked expensive for that time frame.
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| The bananas gave this one a nice touch! |
In walking around town, we started noticing the large colorfully painted gorillas. Jersey will have a trail of 40 life-size gorilla sculptures designed by local and international artists all over the island.
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| The headphones! 😂 |
The ‘Go Wild Gorillas’ public art trail celebrates the charity’s 60th anniversary and aims to raise funds for a new state-of-the-art gorilla house at the Jersey Zoo.
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| I thought this one had a lot of beauty. |
They are large and very pretty. We have run into a few but will take the map and see how many more we can locate. I’ll post those as we find them.
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| One of the shopping areas. No cars on this side so easier to relax |
To top off the night, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant that couldn’t come close to the TexMex we are accustomed to from Texas but it wasn’t intolerable. We then spent the evening at the Opera House for more entertainment.
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| The group had a drummer, bass guitarist and lead guitar. They did really well. |
This time we had the story of Simon & Garfunkel. It was well done. I only knew maybe 5-6 songs but Chuck knew most of them. It was enjoyable. The theater is so quaint and cozy.
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| Simon & Garfunkel life story |
Next week, there will be a parade called the battle of the flowers. This is apparently a huge deal here and most of the flowers arrive from the Netherlands. Cant wait to see that!
May God bless you always!
Chuck & Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 