Ever since coming to Exeter, I've wanted to visit Lyme Regis. I had seen so many gorgeous photographs of it, pinned far too many blog posts on Pinterest and envied any friends who had already had the chance to visit. Lo and behold, as you've probably already read from my other recent posts, now that we've finished exams we've been presented with the perfect opportunity to explore as many places as we possibly can before we inevitably (sob) graduate in July.

So the three of us packed ourselves into Cari's little yellow car, Bobby, and headed for the seaside. Having grown up on a little island where you never had to drive very far to get where you wanted (my best friend and I lived on opposite sides of the island, and it took twenty minutes to get to her house - travelling at the speed limit of 35 mph no less), I've always enjoyed going for longer rides. Not that this was particularly long - after about fifty minutes we were there - but I loved the experience of driving through the countryside with my housemates, belting out our favourite cheesy tunes. It is also possible to get to Lyme Regis from Exeter using public transport, if you take the half hour train to Axminster and then catch a bus for twenty minutes, though it's slightly more complex than your typical ten minute train ride to the coast which was why we decided to drive on this day.

The drive was absolutely beautiful, speeding along wide highways and winding around tiny lanes, overlooking the rolling green hills and - eventually - catching that long-awaited first sight of the sea.

Even as we drove through Lyme Regis for the first time looking for a parking space, we could already tell that we were going to absolutely adore this place. The streets were small and windy, lined with colourful houses and kooky shops filled with knick-knacks, and littered with excited, summery tourists. After finding a parking space, we began exploring immediately, slipping into a couple of the shops to admire all of the gorgeous things we couldn't afford. We also found a fossil shop which was absolutely fascinating, filled with massive fossils of sea creatures that were millions of years old. Lyme Regis is famous for its fossils, so it was amazing to actually see some of the ones that had been found in the local area in person.

After the fossil shop, we couldn't contain our excitement any further, and began to head to the seafront. On the way, a little outdoor entrance to a theatre caught my eye (typical drama student, me) and we peeked in - and thank goodness we did, because it led to the most beautiful view over the sea and the surrounding coastline!

After finally having got a proper look at the seafront, we couldn't quite contain our excitement any longer, and quickly made our way down to the beach. Since it was a Sunday, the whole place was completely alive with people, helping themselves to ice creams from the charming little boutiques and enjoying the sunshine. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we loved walking along the front, taking in all of the sights - children playing in the sand, older couples sitting in their pastel beach houses, and, of course, the most wonderful array of dogs.

I felt so envious of the couples we saw who owned beach houses, and thought of how lovely it would be to retire somewhere as peaceful as this, and spend your days sitting outside on the beach, reading a book or watching the world go by. I also loved the the lamp posts, curling over into the shape of a fossil - the most charming, thoughtful touch.



We helped ourselves to three servings (one each, I'm not just super greedy) of fish and chips - a seaside essential - and made our way to the top of the Jane Austen garden where we found a bench to sit, enjoy the view and soak in all of the wonderfulness of the day. Jane Austen herself actually lived in Lyme Regis for some months in 1803/04, and used the town as a setting in her novel Persuasion. Close to the garden is the Cobb, which is the harbour at Lyme Regis, and stars in The French Lieutenant's Woman (to put it simply, Meryl Streep stood on the Cobb. Enough said). Considering how small and quaint this town is, it sure has seen some famous faces.


After sitting in the gardens for a while, enjoying our chips and chatting about how much we wanted to retire early so that we could move to Lyme Regis, we made our way back along the seafront to return to the outdoor area by the theatre, where there was a cool busker playing. I always really love listening to live music, and this was the most beautiful setting.

While we'd chosen to go right from the viewpoint area to walk along the beach, earlier I had seen a lovely little pathway to the left of the theatre that I wanted to go back to. There was some beautiful wooden fencing angling its way up the hill that I knew would give us an amazing view, and make for the loveliest photographs - always thinking about that Insta!




Next, we made our way back into the town to find a rather famous bookshop which, as English students, was a lot of the reason why we were so keen to come to Lyme Regis in the first place! The bookshop is called The Sanctuary, and also doubles as a B&B, so you can hire one of two rooms to stay the night, either overlooking the sea or the land. Everywhere you look, the shop is piled high with books. Spanning multiple rooms and floors, we spent a good hour or so working our way through all of the second-hand books they had. My favourite area was down the stairs, where they had a room with a low ceiling and comfy sofas, complete with a gorgeous record player and a huge array of vinyl records to choose from.


We eventually made our way out of the shop with a sizeable pile of books between us, and finally made our way back to the beach to get a highly anticipated ice cream before we finally began to make our way back home, from a little ice cream shop called Mollie's that we'd spotted earlier on in the day. I chose a toffee fudge ice cream with a waffle cone and flake (of course), and we sat on the wall by the beach to soak up the last of the sun - the perfect end to a lovely day.