Guernsey

Victor Hugo lived at Hauteville House in the island's capital St Peter Port for most of his long exile from France, where he completed famous works like Les Misérables. The extraordinary mansion overlooking the sea remains as he left it in 1870 as a fascinating museum to his imaginative interior design - using doors as tables and old chests for wood panelling. St Peter Port, a vibrant harbour town with its 800-year-old Castle Cornet and narrow cobbled streets, is a pleasure to explore - go shopping in its galleries, craft studios and individual boutiques, especially as there is no VAT on Guernsey.