Where Victor Hugo found freedom

Today, locals speak English more than any other language, but the warmth of their hospitality remains undimmed.

"It's such a small island, everyone knows everyone - in a nice way," says Mark Pontin, the proprietor of Ship and Crown, a local pub where Juliette Drouet first stayed when she arrived on Guernsey.

"Most locals know the stories about Victor Hugo, and people have plenty of time to talk about the history of the island."

In his mid-50s when he arrived in Guernsey, Hugo believed that his "present refuge" would eventually become his "probable tomb."

Fueled by these morbid fears - amplified, no doubt, by his remote isolation - he embarked on a staggeringly prolific literary output, as well as his most tangible work of art, the decoration of his home, Hauteville House.

In 1927, Hugo's granddaughter, Jeanne, and great-grandchildren, Jean, Marguerite and Francois, donated the property to the city of Paris, which maintains it as a museum, open from April to September.

Stepping into the house, which brims with objets d'art and swaths of tapestry, is like entering Hugo's imagination, filled with hidden symbolism, defiant declarations and winks of humor.

"The house is like a journey," says Cedric Bail, a conservation assistant.

Hugo spent almost six years decorating the house, scouring the island's junk shops for functional items that he repurposed into decorative elements. Under his keen eye, dozens of carved wooden sea chests were joined into a towering mantelpiece, and curved Regency chair backs became ornamental window frames. Small faces and words - "bits of propaganda," Bail said - are carved into the wall paneling: A sign over the dining room door reads, "Exilium vita est" ("Life is an exile").

Suffused with a dark oppressiveness that Bail likened to that of a prison, the lower rooms gave way to light as we ascended the stairs. At the top of the house, a glass conservatory, shockingly bright, housed Hugo's primary domain: a spartan bedroom - where the notorious philanderer slept flanked by maidservants' beds - and an office with views that stretch across the Channel.