How droll that sounds!
The famous Cobb of this town has been featured in Jane Austen's Persuasion, which was published six months after her death in 1817. John Fowles' 1969 novel The French Lieutenant's Woman was also set in Lyme Regis, with the iconic opening shot taken at the end of the Cobb on a stormy day. I tried to replicate the shot, with little success.
This is really one of the prettiest coastal towns I've seen. It is very touristy, and we did run into a beach guitar festival. Again, covers of famous songs with different inflections made UB40's "Mirror in the Bathroom" very, very funny. The impresario tried to get everybody pumped up as bands changed the stage, but he ended up looking like a cross between Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka and a Mick Jagger wannabe.
Past the music we found the inner harbor at low tide. It was really low tide. These boats have propellers that bend up so they don't get stuck in the muck.
Lots of tourists are taking pictures, eating ice cream, walking their dogs, and enjoying the beautiful day. Weather changes quickly here. It was foggy and misty when we arrived, which meant we went right to the pub for lunch. The Cobb Arms is about 400 years old, but doesn't smell as musty as you might imagine. We ate fishcakes, and I discovered the Juicy Lucy, a double cheeseburger with carmelized onions and cheddar cheese. After we stuffed ourselves, the waiter brought us each our own tub of fries, with "salad creme" as dip. Did not even open the bottle of that. I did try the pub mustard (quite strong), the HB sauce (a cross between a brown sauce and BBQ, with tamarind), malt vinegar (not as malty as in the U.S.), and straight up Heinz ketchup. After, the sun came out, the wind blew away the mist, and we went on a walk.
I was ecstatic to find a garden area dedicated to Jane Austen. I knew she had visited Lyme, but didn't know the exact dates. Could not find a house with a plaque on it, but did find these plaques below the flowers. Several memorial benches were in place, and the steps were really steep.
Next on the list - Sidmouth. It's one of the more popular ocean towns for retirees and is in East Devon. Lyme Regis is barely past it, but technically in the County of Dorset. We had to travel along very narrow lanes with hedgerows so tall they joined the canopy of trees over head. Were they around in 1804-5, when Jane Austen was alive? A horse drawn carriage would be more at home than a car, which nearly has to pull over to oncoming traffic. And when a bus is approaching head on, it's a gut check, especially when we seem to be on the wrong side of the road!
We learned from our local Brit about town names. A town that ends in -cester originated from the Roman times 2000 years ago. A town that ends with -mouth has a river or estuary that feeds into the ocean. Exmouth and Sidmouth are located where the fresh water meets the salty sea. Sidmouth is part of the Jurassic Coast, with lots of fossils in the beach pebbles and a red, clay-like soil on the cliffs. At the end of the coast here, you can barely see some white cliffs, made of chalk.
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