Beautiful Carmel

Carmel Beach
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We arrived in Carmel thinking that we would only stop for lunch in it, but liked it so much we decided to stay the night.

It’s a small sea-side town with a lovely big white sandy beach. There's not a lot going on really apart from the "stultifying air of pretension" according to our rough guide! Writer must have been having a bad day, we thought Carmel was great. It’s really quaint and individualistic due to many funny laws they have introduced. For example, they have outlawed franchises, chain stores, post boxes, street signs and even traffic lights as they belive them to be too common! Trying to find a street without a sign is mad. They do have poles with the street names written down them, which is okay when you’re on foot, but from a car it’s fairly difficult.

Most definitely it's a Southside housewife’s dream

and again
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Having no traffic lights on their many, many cross roads (the town is typically American, and is in square grid form) forces drivers to be chivalorus to other drivers & pedestrians. It’s nice, in Dublin it would be every man for themselves trying to drive straight through, but in Carmel it’s more like “you first”.... “oh no my good man, I couldn’t possibly, you first!”.

Their ‘no chain stores’ rule means that it is full of boutiques, quirky shops and cafes (which all proudly sell Starbucks coffee, but aren’t allowed to be Starbucks!), loads of galleries etc. One of the most common sights was pet stores. Not your average pet store - no dog or cat s on sale, just clothes for your dogs and cats. theres actually more of these pet boutiques than there are pubs.

i pulled her out eventually
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They all seem to be competing to be the most individual, some of the buildings themselves are like something out of a fairytale – the witchs house in Hansel & Gretel or something - check out the photo! Its just really nice to wander about in the town dropping into the little shops etc. It’s reminded us ofa certain Ross O’Carroll Kelly’s description of certain South Dublin towns. its a bit like Dalkey & Killiney would like to be I think!

Most definitely it's a Southside housewife’s dream – loads of places to eat rocket, blue cheese & walnut salads with the ladies who lunch - followed by some shopping in the lovely boutiques to buy something you dont need, maybe buy some art, then some plants in one of the garden centres & then prehaps dinner in one of their many, many lovely resturants. The one chain store we did come across was Lush, the smelly soap shop, which will tell you a bit about who runs this town! We loved it, don’t know what it says about us!

lovely view out over the beach
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We had dinner & (loads) of cocktails in a pub that night & swapped gambling tips with the barman (we’re experts now you see, we’ve been to Vegas once and lost some money!). We got chatting to a mad very chatty old lady at the bar, and met an American guy who was Irish (surprisingly), which was nice!

Mike Twomey recommended Carmel to us, and it was a great recommendation – Cheers Mike!