Holy Cow, That’s a Small Chapel! (6/9/25)

Before I talk about today’s walk, I wanted to share one of the cutest pet rituals we’ve seen while house sitting. Below is a photo of Daisy with her white stuffed bear toy. She goes to her basket every afternoon between five and six, picks up this toy and proceeds to walk the yard with it. If it’s raining, she just walks in the house with it. When she’s “patrolled” enough, she puts the toy down and doesn’t bother with it until the next day at around the same time.

The focus of today’s outing was a visit to The Little Chapel, a colorful miniature grotto created in 1914. More on that later. We did get to it via a sidewalk that happily ran the length of a main road and then continued on all the way (about 45 minutes one way) to the chapel. On the way there and back, we were reminded in various ways about the cows for which the island is famous.

The Little Chapel is aptly named at just 16 ft by 9 ft. It is covered in broken pieces of pottery. It was built mostly by Brother Deodat Antoine of the Order of de la Salle. This was a Roman Catholic French Order founded in 1680 for the education of boys. The Order left France in 1904 when the French government banned all faith schools. Brother Deodat built The Little Chapel after having a vision to create his own version of the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1914, he made his vision a reality, and we’re still talking about him.

Bob and I managed to see the chapel as we happened to time our visit in between two fairly sizable tour groups. The chapel is free to visit but takes donations. Also, posted signs indicated that ceramic pieces for the steps were donated by Wedgwood Barlaston, so likely added after the original chapel.

We walked the same route back and stopped at a Coop to pick up some groceries. I snapped a photo of the iconic gingham Guernsey milk cartons. I don’t think I’ve seen any other brand of milk in the stores.