Mirinda was up and ready to go at 10am, something unheard of.
We left for A la Ronde, one of the more original National Trust properties.
It’s a 16 sided house designed and built in the late 1700’s. The Parminter sisters (Mary and Jane) lived there, filling it with memorabilia from their ten year European tour.
The house has a gallery lined with shells that is too fragile to go into so you can only see it through CCTV cameras. Shells aside, the whole place was incredible.
(By the way, up to today, the weather had been kind but today it started with rain and remained miserable for the rest of the day.)
The Parminter girls left the house to women ‘…to allow only unmarried kins-women to inherit.’ as per Mary’s will. As it says on the back of the Guidebook ‘…there is nothing quite like A la Ronde!’ Too true.
Then it was off to Exmouth. It seems we have visited the River Exe many times this holiday so it only seemed right to go to the mouth and take a boat ride.
But before that (it didn’t leave till 2:15) we took a walk along the seafront (remember: ‘The sea is not a swimming pool’) and watched the population of Exmouth walk their dogs along the combination sand and shell beach. This was even though there was a very cold wind blowing. We decided to stop at the Grove. I had a pint of Brakspear, a local ale. Not bad.
And, of course, a trip to Exmouth would not be complete without a visit to the Babushka Russian Art and Craft Shop. Mirinda bought four Christmas decorations but was very good because she liked just about everything in the shop.
Finally, we went aboard the Tudor Rose. It was a lovely way to spend an hour and a half even though the day was gloomy. And at £7 for us both, excellent value.
We took the coastal drive back to Sidmouth to get to the bookshop before it closed for a book about Enid Blyton. The shop didn’t open today so we didn’t get it. We will try tomorrow.
We then had a lovely stroll along the River Walk which has only just opened again following the foot and mouth precautions. It started at the ford which cars have to drive across and ended about a mile further on. A terrific walk.
Then back to the farm to rest up before another brilliant meal at Jolly’s.
Our last night.
