I was house sitting a couple of months ago when Britain was awash with a welcome hot sun. I travelled to a little English village beside the ‘Butlins infamous’ town of Bognor Regis. A seaside town with pebble beach on the south coast of England. I was a bit concerned beforehand that it would be a jolly vista of lobster pink bodies, garish teeth chipping candy, and awash with bawdy ‘hens’ on a night out. Not so. Just 1/4 mile from Bognor promenade and you arrive in a calm and peaceful oasis where time has stood still. It’s all precision clipped lawns and friendly doffed caps. The most rowdy you’ll experience in this village of thatched cottages and dogs you can tuck under your armpit, is a swooping opportunist seagull nicking your cucumber sandwiches!
As usual when I am travelling around much research is carried out and the internet chugs out helpful lists of places of interest, and of course Happy Cow lets me know what is in my area in terms of vegan eats. The vegan eats drew a blank, the closest being Daisy Moo in Worthing. What I did find was Vegetaria. A totally vegan shop (curiously combined with an estate agency - the veggie passionate owners wanted to make eating meat free easier for shoppers). It is small shop floor but well stocked with ready meals, gluten free products, veggie ‘meats’, vegan cheese, desserts, frozen good, condiments, snacks, drinks, house hold products and pet food! And, it is a not just a high street store. Vegetaria have an online store too! I’m so happy to see more and more vegan stores sprouting up in Europe.
Two of the three pugs that I had the pleasure to look after. Pugs are hilarious as I had the joy to discover!
Thanks for this you did us proud! Bognor Regis is much maligned and people only really think of old fashioned seaside town, holiday camps and, the better read, quotes like ‘bugger bognor’ but it’s actually quite nice. We actually live in the village you refer to (Felpham) just outside Bognor - the only claim to fame I know of is it is where William Blake was inspired to write Jerusalem.
As for our shop - any mention of it is great news so thank you for that. We realised we could achieved an all vegan shop because the overheads are covered by the lettings business so we don’t actually need profit from the vegan shop to keep it going ( a little would be nice though!). Hope you enjoy your further travels and if you in these parts again please pop in and say Hi - great Pugs by the way
Oh my goodness those dogs! Be still, my heart!