Glass altarpiece by René Lalique. Photo: Man Vyi

Crossing the street on the isle of Jersey in midsummer is a risky business, though thankfully injuries can be more floral than fatal.

Bedding plants can inflict some nasty injuries if you don’t look left, then right, and left again to make sure a float isn’t heading your way.

Jaywalking is not recommended in the UK’s Channel Islands if you are susceptible to a high pollen count.

Jersey, the most southern Channel Island, doesn’t have a F1 Grand Prix, but every August the locals put up grandstands and erect VIP areas along the main road of the capital St Helier.

But it’s not Lewis Hamilton people come to watch. It’s the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants. Their top speed is around five kph.

Jersey’s ‘Battle of Flowers’ is Europe’s greatest floral carnival. It was first held in 1902 as part of the celebrations for the coronation of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

The island’s links with the British monarchy have always been close. Edward VII enjoyed a close relationship with local socialite Lillie Langtry who is buried in the churchyard at St Saviour where her father, the Dean of Jersey, was once rector.

The first parade of horse-drawn floats was such a success that it became an annual event. The custom was to pluck a flower off one of the floats and throw it to a lady in the crowd.

Some of the flowers were thrown back and so the streets of Jersey became a battlefield.

In 1951 the parade was revived after the German occupation in World War II but when things began to get a little too rowdy and not very sporting, it became a battle only in name. Only soft stems are now allowed.

Jersey’s attractions are fairly well known: its 27 beaches, its fishing and surfing, its seafood restaurants, golf courses and castles such as Mont Orgeuil in Gorey and Elizabeth in St Aubin’s.

Actor John Nettles in the 1980s TV show Bergerac made the island famous among UK residents. Its other local celebrities are equally renowned – tomatoes, potatoes, cows and golfer Ian Woosnam. Gerald Durrell’s not-a-zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Trust, is in Les Augres Manor. The late British journalist and TV host Alan Whicker also lived there.

But perhaps the island’s least-known attraction is the glass church at Millbrook.

St Matthew’s church is thought to be unique and was built by the French artist and glassmaker René Lalique.

The square-steepled church goes back to 1840 and was visited in 1885 by a gentleman named Jesse Boot, the founder of the Boots the Chemist chain.

He married a local girl and they bought a holiday home next to St Matthew’s, where they were known locally as Lord and Lady Trent.

When her husband died in 1931, Florence Boot commissioned Lalique, who was a neighbour in southern France and had designed some glass doors for them, to turn St Matthew’s into a memorial to him.

After René Lalique finished St Matthew’s church, he broke all his moulds

Lalique – who had designed a 45-foot-high glass fountain for the Paris Exposition of 1925 – agreed to remodel the interior of the church. He began work in 1933 at the age of 74, replacing all the interior fixtures and fittings with glass. He designed the church in Art Deco style without colour or stained glass.

Lady Trent and Lalique agreed on one important detail: angels would be the major feature.

There are six, and the same shimmering wings arch above each figure, but their expressions differ slightly.

Two angels command the main doorway and four preside behind the communion table in the Lady chapel that also contains the organ. Lalique also installed a white sharkskin floor to keep the organist from slipping.

The moulded, fluted glass baptismal font is believed to be unique to St Matthew’s. Lalique did work on another glass church La Chappelle de la Virge in Calvados but this was badly damaged during the war.

The font is the only piece to bear the artist’s name, and the bowl itself is the only clear glass in the building.

He also designed the windows, which depict Jersey lilies. The 15-foot cross is illuminated from inside by neon lights and flanked by two giant candlesticks. They are always switched on during services.

All the glass throughout is moulded white glass or verre blanc moule-presse, which was formulated by Lalique. The church was completed in 1934 in collaboration with local architect A.B. Grayson.

Lalique died 10 years later. After he finished St Matthew’s, he broke all his moulds.

Jersey is the only place in the world where you can look through an angel as well as standing by the roadside and enjoying the fragrant fumes of the passing traffic.