Bathing in the glory of Bath

Y & I have just returned from a great weekend visiting Bath and the surrounding area. We hired a car and left London early Saturday morning, arriving in Bath just in time for brunch/early lunch. We stumbled upon a cute street of cafes and ended up eating at Chandos Deli. This is a great deli selling fresh bread, charcuterie, cheeses & other foodie products including Willie's World Class Cacao which is 100% cacao. Like a child with a tendency for tantrums in a toy store, I immediately grabbed one of the solid, squat, cylinders of cacao and refused to release it until it was mine (which is not necessarily a given when it costs almost 7 pounds). (If you watched the TV series "Willie's Chocolate Factory" you'll know about this product and Willie's struggle to manufacture the pure chocolate in his factory and then market it in stores, as well as educating people how to use it). The cacao can be used in both sweet and savoury meals and I'm very eager to try it!

Contrary to the impression I've given, buying the cacao was not the main event - we'd actually gone to Chandos Deli for much needed sustenance after a 2.5 hour drive from London. We were not disappointed - the deli has a lovely seating area and, although the fare is mainly paninis (being made freshly when we arrived), the goats cheese & caramelised red onion toasted panini we shared (it was time to cut back after the lavish chocolate expenditure) was delicious, as was the coffee.

We then began the exciting task of exploring Bath, which included a great kitchen shop called Kitchens (4 & 5 Quiet Street, Bath BA1 2JS) where I bought the spoon and salad servers below.

After several hours of discovering Bath, in particular the Roman Baths, an afternoon snack was required. Despite promises (they were inside my head, so didn't really count in the first place) to eat healthily, strolling around cobble stone streets along side Jane Austen fans dressed in period costume really does oblige one to partake in tea. And you can't take tea without cake. We stopped at a tea place just near the Roman Baths and enjoyed a refreshing tea with a cupcake for Y and fruit cake for me (at least I ate fruit). Both cakes hit the spot (although unfortunately that spot it likely to have been somewhere on my thigh or bottom).

We left Bath to find our B&B about 20 minutes away in Whitley. Click here to read about the delightful Pear Tree Inn (blog immediately below) & the delicious meal we enjoyed there.

Sunday morning we left the Pear Tree Inn and headed 5 minutes down the road to Neston Park Farm Shop (above) - a hugely popular oasis in Neston, just outside of Atworth.

People were sitting outside eating brunch in the sun, whilst others walked the farm trail spotting cows, piglets and sheep. The best place to be however, was in the farm shop (above) amongst the organic fruit & veg, fresh bread, organic meat and poultry, chutneys, biscuits, jams, oils ... you get the idea.

We bought an organic chook (dry plucked by hand I'm told), pork belly (I hadn't seen the cute piglets at this stage), mint mayonnaise, organic beetroot chutney and pork & venison salami. A delightful stop!

From Neston we drove 3-4 miles down the road to Bradford-on-Avon - a gorgeous village through which the Avon River flows. An amble down the Shambles is rewarded with the great Maples Deli (pictured below - I picked up a bottle of pomegranate molasses) and a china & kitchen shop (Tillion?). Neston Park also has a shop here called The Cheeseboard which was closed on Sundays but which looked impressive (above).

The central Fat Fowl restaurant was buzzing for Sunday brunch/lunch & jazz.
A stroll down the Avon River to the Tithe Barn (built in 1300's) and the craft workshops is a must.

Our next stop was lunch at the Wheat Sheaf at Combe Hay. Click here to read more about that experience (blog below, after Pear Tree Inn review).

From Combe Hay we drove approximately 30 minutes to Lacock to see the Abbey there and to stroll the quaint historic village (used in the BBC's Pride & Prejudice). We more than made up for missing out on dessert at the Wheat Sheaf at the King John's Hunting Lodge Tea House where we indulged in tea, scones and homemade crumpets in the garden (above & below).

Now for a week at the gym to work off a fabulous weekend!