La Sablonnerie

Arriving at this pretty 17th-century farmhouse with roses round the door ‘is part of its enormous charm’: guests are met at the ferry from Guernsey in horse-drawn carriage and clip-clop over La Coupée, a dramatic, narrow isthmus 80 metres above the sea. In a beautiful corner of the car-free dark-sky island, ‘effervescent and charismatic’ owner Elizabeth Perrée devotes heart and soul to the enterprise begun by her family in 1948. Early visitors included Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. ‘Quaint and pleasingly simple’ bedrooms are in the main house and surrounding cottages. On cold days a fire burns in the inglenook in a beamed lounge. Colin Day’s locally sourced menus, served in the rustic dining room or among the brimming flower borders of the tea garden, include dishes such as roasted scallops, duckling with green peppercorn sauce. ‘We feasted on lobster in the pretty garden.’ You can bathe in the tidal Venus rock pool, go cycling or take boat trips. Time and tide were against one reader who had hoped both ‘to visit the caves in Derrible Bay’ and to return for a 25th stay on Sark when lockdown hit. Paradise postponed.