My Southwest alphabet tour has started!

This afternoon I took the first journey of my alphabet tour of the South West.  Mainly I will drive to locations, be they towns, villages, hamlets, tourist attractions, fairly close to my home town (within an hour or so) but there may be occasions that I will go a little further if there are places I particularly want to see (and there are!)

Anyway, today the tour began -  with the letter A of course!

I considered a few places and eventually decided that I would visit a town, just 21 miles away that I have not been to before.  The town is Axminster.

I chose it because I wanted to visit the River Cottage Canteen and Deli there. 

The drive was a pleasant one, mainly through countryside.  It was a little grey and overcast and very wet, so I did not do much exploring.

I found the River Cottage place very easily. Its on the main Street in Axminster and there was ample parking close by in a free car park (West Street car park) and there was also some parking right outside the River Cottage in bays.
Here is a link to the River Cottage Canteen website if you want to check it out: River Cottage Canteen and Deli, Axminster

This was an excellent choice for Sunday lunch. I had wanted to visit for some time and was not disappointed. I chose to dine in the deli (there is also a canteen, which I guess is more of a restaurant). Several people were eating Sunday roast in the deli and it looked absolutely delicious (and massive!) 
I don't have a massive budget for doing these trips, so I decided on the soup of the day with bread.
This is a mobile phone picture, so its not the best quality, but I think you'll be able to see the soup (spicy parsnip) was garnished beautifully with deep fried  parsnip strips and green pesto and was served with a bread board, with lots of freshly baked bread and west country butter in a little pot!  
It was lovely and cosy in there as the rain came down outside and the staff were very friendly.  I was on my own and wondered if anyone else would be, but in the deli, I would say that 75% of the diners were on their own.  Each were reading the Sunday papers or just enjoying watching the world go by.
Alongside the deli diner bit was a deli shop which sold some amazing looking pasties, pork pies and cheeses, along with many locally produced foods, chocolates, drinks and River Cottage books, aprons, bags and more.  They often have themed nights such as steak nights, stew nights etc  I think I may return for a stew one evening!  

As I said, I did not really see much else of Axminster as the weather was not favourable to being a tourist! It was dry before I went for lunch at the River Cottage deli and I managed to get this picture of the church in the centre of the town on my mobile. I also, visited the Tesco store, which is due to expand I believe and the Tesco petrol station which is very handy on the route home!


All in all a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I will definitely return to this town! There is also a farm shop that I wish to visit there called Millers Farm Shop, on A35, but I was too late to catch that open today.  Here is the link for that, for anyone who is interested:Millers Farm Shop

For those who are interested there is also a River Cottage canteen in Bath and Hugh plans to open one in Plymouth shortly, I heard today. 

That's all for now - next time somewhere beginning with B!  I have enjoyed my first time blogging!