Franschhloek to Cape Town and London

We awoke to what looked like a cold day and had serious doubts about the outside shower! However, it really wasn't that cold and before we went up to breakfast, we watched a rainbow appear.





When we were eating our breakfast, a baboon briefly appeared on the roof of the restaurant.





We packed up our bags and checked out. We had been offered a wine tour as part of our stay and this was scheduled for 11am. We had booked a table at a restaurant a short distance away at 1pm and thought that we would be kicking our heels for a while, but this was not the case.

At 11am we assembled on the lawn, as instructed and tried not to get mixed up with a wedding was taking place at the same time.

We were a group of six, a German couple, a local with visitor and us, plus the vigneron and owner of the hotel, John (the patriarch).

We have done many wines tours in our time and this was the best!

John has built the business, both the hotel and vineyard and is passionate and knowledgeable. His wines win prizes year after year although La Petite Ferme is not a big vineyard.





The tour was interactive, not a lecture. John was asking questions all the time and keeping everyone involved, and we were ordered to be quiet at times. We examined the vines in detail, covered the history of wine in South Africa and the terroir. Then we went inside to the business end of making wine. It was helpful that some of the red grapes had been picked only two weeks before and were still being processed.

In the vines he explained how he grafted his vines, the different soil types they have and how they decide when to pick the grapes.

We saw the white wines in their specially cooled vats (not something that we had seen inaction before). He explained the lengths that they went to to produce good Sauvignon Blanc. We saw red wine in open vats with the grape skins still in their cap. The floor was wet with grape juice/wine.




Then we went to the wines maturing in barrels and tasted them from a pipette (wine thief).


Finally, we tasted wines from the bottle including one that we had drunk the previous evening.

From previous experience, I expected that prices would be mentioned and that one would feel some obligation to buy. This was not the case. John simply wished us a good day and left us.

It was the most interesting wine tour we have experienced, ever.

So, we then headed for lunch at Rickety Bridge (that's another wine domain with a restaurant).



Here we had a very enjoyable lunch at a very reasonable price. This was the view from the terrace where we ate






We then meandered our way through the Stellanbosch wine area to Cape Town to return the car and take the plane to London.

The town of Stellenbosch, like Franshhoek, has many restaurants, but is but as tourisy. These are some of the scenes

















It could almost be a village in England






While having a cup of tea, we noticed this possible slogan for the Conservative party






We headed for the airport through the Stellenbosch wine fields





And quite liked the logo for this vineyard






We passed this film set on the outskirts of Cape Town.





Our flight was on time and we arrived in the UK at 6am on Sunday to snow, which was a shock after our recent temperatures of 25 - 30 C.





We had lunch with all the family on Sunday and will be returning to France during the week.


Pat and John on tour

Franshhoek and La Petite Ferme

La Petite Ferme is a hotel, restaurant and wine producer overlooking Franshhoek. As well as hotel rooms, there are cottages in the vines.

Our cottage, Pear Tree cottage, was down a vineyard track and definitely not to be driven to in the dark. It is the green roof below



It had a bathroom but not a shower, however, there was an outside shower by the plunge pool.

This is the view from the shower and over the plunge pool , so we felt pretty safe from onlookers.


We went up to breakfast in the dining room





from which the view is



The restaurant is normally open only for lunch and so we went to reception to arrange for a platter of cheese in the evening. The receptionist asked if we knew that they would be serving dinner on this evening and that there was a jazz concert. We changed our plans on the spot and booked for the evening.

We returned to the cottage and sat on the terrace for a while, blogged and looking at photos



We wandered into Franshooek to look around. The town is very well presented and clearly up market and touristy with art shops, restaurants and B&Bs. It's not somewhere to do day-to-day shopping. There was also an open market of African Art stalls which although much cheaper than the shops, were devoid of shoppers, other than us. We bought yet another small stone statue.









The Town Hall




We had thought of doing some wine tasting, after lunch, but eventually decided just to have a lazy, relaxing day and sort out the cases ready for the following day. John wandered down to the dam below out cottage with his camera




There were lots of noisy Egyptian Geese



In the evening, we enjoyed a very good meal and some excellent wines made at La Petite Ferme while listening to the music.





Pat and John on tour

Barrowdale to Franshhoek

We were wakened at 6.30 by our next door neighbour shouting into his phone for an hour. This was not a good start to the day!
We ate a nice breakfast in the garden and then visited the owners' large garden across the road.








The inmates of part of the plot were a pig and a bullock. The pig, refused to come out of his sty but the bullock came bounding from over the hill to say hello.




This the the church which looks so perfect, it could be a Lego model




We then set off towards Franshhoek. We passed the local winemaker, Barrydale Cellar and began to feel at home as we passed vineyards. For a short time, we thought that mountains and vines would be all that we would see all the way to our destination .....
















Our first stop was Montagu where we stopped for a cup of tea and then wandered around the town which was quite pretty.




And up to the old saw mill which was the gateway to some long walks up into the mountains, passing over a river




And capturing the local wild life




As we returned to our car, we were stopped by a friendly passerby collecting sand and searching for someone to OK his removal of sand. According to his van, he was a thatcher and from his dress, a soldier. Without prompting by us, he told us that he was in the army and how much better his life is now compared to the apartheid years. It sounded as though he was a builder when on leave.
It wasn't long that we were back with magnificent mountain views and arid countryside.




There were a lot of bikers about enjoying the roads (this is for you James!), we heard that there was a rally at Mossel Bay and, of course, the bikers would be looking for winding mountain roads en route.




Some of the views were quite stunning




We came to a bridge through the rock




And stopped of the other side




(I should explain that there were times on this journey that we were stopping at every opportunity and sometimes doubling back, as the scenery improved all the time).
We passed Ashton and its New Look, neighbourhood




and at Robertson we stopped for a lunch at the cafe of a small garden centre and then looked around at the plants in case there were any names to plants we had seen, but most were plants that we have in Europe and many were unlabeled.
We realised that we had not been concentrating and had gone
past our turning onto the R43 as we came into Worcester. This was not a total disaster, however, and TomTom instantly took so through some magnificent scenery on the way to Franshhoek via the N1 and R45.
We were back in arid country again. The valleys were mainly green but when you went over a pass into the next valley that was very dry. We lost count of the numbers of times that we went thought passes into new valleys with new mountains surrounding us. Some of the valleys reminded us of the Adige valley in Italy near to Bolzano on the way to the Brenner pass.




The N1 route provided some of the most spectacular scenery of the journey. These were taken from out of the car window as we travelled as there were no places to stop.








Eventually we found a place to stop just before the long Huguenot Tunnel and just before Paarl but the panorama loses the impact.




The light was fading when we reached La Petit Ferme in Franshhoek. This is the view from our window over the terrace.




We wandered around Franshhoek for an hour with the setting sun on the mountains




before eating outside in a local restaurant.
Franshhoek is renowned for its food which seemed to be supported by TripAdvisor as there was little difference in people's scores for the first dozen of 40 restaurants.




Pat and John on tour