Why, oh why, would anyone want to go to Axminster? It sounds like somewhere you need to visit. If for nothing else then for the carpets. Let me disappoint you. The place is pretty awful. It has one of the few churches that I’ve visited which appears to have nothing interesting about it. The high street is a mish-mash of ill conceived shops. There are two Tescos, for God’s sake!
The café near the TIC where we first stopped has a loony rush. There is no warning. The crazy woman comes in first, as a sort of demented warm-up act, and engages the waitress in meaningless drivel about the differences between 10 and 20 pence coins. Then the door flies open, as if from a hurricane, and standing, silhouetted in the doorway is a man who mumbles something incoherent to no-one in particular. He continues having this conversation as he wanders about the café, pausing momentarily to comment on the fact that someone seems to have left the magazine part of a Saturday newspaper behind.
“Has someone left their newspaper?” He enquires of the empty café.
OK, it was empty apart from us and the mad woman but we quickly left the questions unanswered and the crazies to themselves.
Originally we were headed for Sherborne but the A30 was closed. I mean, how the hell can they close a road? I think I asked this about a motorway once. I’m still not satisfied with an answer. Not even of any kind. We were almost there! Then we had to turn back and head towards Chard. I think we should have visited either Crewkerne or Chard rather than go for Axminster. I’m not going to talk any more about Axminster.
Next we had decided to visit Lyme Regis but lunch was hollering and Mirinda had heard about an excellent seafood restaurant at West Bay. She couldn’t remember from whom or where. She tried to find the reference in our guide book but it evaded her. The reference, not the guide book! Figuring West Bay to not be overly big, we guessed we’d find it. And we did.
West bay was actually the port built for Bridport except they couldn’t get it deep enough and so it’s basically a marina with lots of trailer park space and caravan lettings. And an EXCELLENT seafood restaurant. And we arrived just in time to watch the rain and wind lash the windows and drive the poor hapless tourists to find shelter.
The scallops were lovely (I feel sorry for the woman at the next table who didn’t have them when she quite obviously should have) the skate wing, which I’ve never tried before, was delicious and I don’t think I really need to comment on the fig and pistachio frangipani tart with real vanilla ice cream. We also had a lovely bottle of wine from Saumur on the Loire, our Christmas destination.
Apart from the wonderful food, the service was extraordinary. And the speed, mind boggling. I had never seen anyone work so fast. They were all quite quick.
Outside, the weather continued foul and didn’t let up just because we’d finished and were leaving. We felt very sorry for the bride who was about to arrive at St John’s church and for the wedding guest whose dress seemed to prefer being above her head. I mean, who would plan a wedding on such a day.
The day was still young and we were getting steadily older so we decided to investigate the shower cap situation in Bridport. Bridport seems like a rather nice place but the weather didn’t really give us much of a chance to inspect it beyond the chemist. Sadly, we never returned.
We spent the rest of the day in our apartment listening to the buffeting wind and ignoring the 30 foot crashing waves behind us.
