As you may know, THE latest NOVEL is out. I feel kind of both on a writing “break” as well as a bit “unemployed.” For the first time since early 2020, I am not writing anything for eventual publication.
We also decided to take a short actual HOLIDAY…
We drove down last weekend to Devon, in the southwest. For the week we rented an Airbnb from a lovely couple who have turned a surviving 16th century shell of a one-time stone barn into a three room cottage. The exterior walls were kept as exterior features, but the rest of the rebuild is timber-framed…
The interior was extremely well finished, too.
It was on the edge of Dartmoor National Park…
The main reason we were there is friends have moved from a Bristol suburb to what is known as “the English Rivera.” They bought a sea view house in the old town of Paignton (pronounced “Pain-ton”). It is about 15 minutes from where we were staying inland.
A couple of miles along the coast from their new house is the adjoining (slightly larger) town of Torquay…
Author Agatha Christie was born in Torquay. And poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived in it in the 1830s – her doctor recommended it as a place to recover from some illness. (Probably tuberculosis. “Taking the air” so to speak, as we know Victorians did.)
Today it also boasts some fine U.S. dining…
LOL!
We ventured several other places with them. One was another famous (smaller) seaside town: Dartmouth…
The Royal Navy College is in Dartmouth. The town is all about the ocean and always has been…
The sea is naturally important in the region overall, too. You may know that the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth in western Devon in 1620 for the English-claimed land in North America.
Along the Devon coast, we ventured to a more recent place also of importance to Americans – although far less known that the Mayflower: Slapton Sands…
If you know about D-Day and the Allied landing in Normandy, France in June 1944, you may know of the tragedy that happened off that beach…
In late April, in the middle of a night in Lyme Bay, German fast surface “E-boats” that had left from occupied French Cherbourg, managed to avoid British patrol ships, and got among some “Exercise Tiger” training ships, sinking four, and killing nearly 750 Americans.
A recovered U.S. Sherman tank found in the bay by a local man in the 1970s is on display.
At the Sherman Tank Memorial, it is not a British or a U.S. flag that is currently fluttering.
That is hardly the only place. Ukranian flags are all over here in Britain right now. For instance, here in nearby Tavistock, these two…
Back to a more pleasant subject. Devon is famous for its “cream teas.” They are basically tea, served with a scone that is covered in cream.
Our friends found a place in Torquay’s Babbacombe area that did them and we checked it out…
And their creamed tea was, uh, terrific…
A Devon cream tea is a nice to have NOW AND THEN, but it is not exactly “health food.” LOL!
In our driving around…
…and some of Devon’s non-main roads are, uh, rather interesting…
…we also stopped in at Buckfast Roman Catholic Abbey – on a quiet morning. It is one of the real sights of the county…
Uh, this is not “health food” either. I had had no idea this product even existed…
The abbey gift shop was selling it, so we bought one. LOL!
Have a good day, wherever you are. 🙂
R. J. Nello 
A lovely blog, and so glad you enjoyed my little corner of the UK, R J! 😊
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Thanks. We lived in Dorset, but hardly knew Devon. A wonderful place your little corner is.
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My congratulations, dear Robert! A new book is a new joy & a new page for another one. 🙂 Vodka in Devon? What a surprise! The tea seems to be delicious indeed….and pure British.
Greetings from Paris!
Maria 😊
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Thank you! Yes, a new book! And Devon vodka!😁
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