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Published: January 26th 2021
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Le Petit Paris
accommodation in Franschhoek Franschoek Afrikaans for "French Corner", is a small town in the Western Cape Province and one of the oldest towns of the Republic of South Africa. It is about 75 kilometers from Cape Town and has a population of app 18'000 people, easily doubling on weekends when the Cape Towners come to party. Cape Town is only a 45 minutes drive away. It is a posh upmarket place where expensive cars and Harley motorbikes are a standard sight. In 1688, French Huguenot refugees began populating the valley establishing farms and businesses bringing with them their experience in agriculture and wine making. The name of the area soon changed to le Coin Français, with many of the settlers naming their new farms after the areas in France from which they came. La Motte, Champagne, La Cotte, Cabrière, La Provence, Bourgogne, La Terra de Luc and La Dauphine were among some of the first established farms. Most buildings in the village and the farmhouses still retain their original Cape Dutch farm style, although nicely renovated, suiting modern luxuries. These farms have grown into renowned wineries. Many of the families surnames in the area are of French origin and are still today in Huguenots
family possession, e.g. Du Toit, Marais, Du Plessis, Malan, Malherbe, and Joubert. This heritage is shown today by the Huguenot Monument, which stands at the end of the town. The nearby Huguenot Memorial Museum adjacent to the monument explores the history of the French Huguenots who settled in the Cape, and especially in the Franschhoek Valley. Architecture in much of the village is unspoiled, as restrictions have been placed on the extent of renovations and new construction is allowed, in order to preserve the spirit of the original settlers to the area. Franschhoek is notable for having some of the top restaurants in the country within its borders, as we have also found out last night. This fact, together with the strong wine culture, and pristine natural and architectural beauty has made Franschhoek into what many describe as the "food and wine capital" of South Africa. The city hosts with the restaurant "Le Quartier Français" one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, (according to the "S.Pellegrino world's 50 best restaurants"-ranking) and has a famous Belgian Pâtisserie for pralines. If you want to be cool here you act Francophile !!! No problem, thought Nenad and gave his English a
twist of French accent..... The shopping experience in Franschhoek is very interesting with several independent boutiques and menswear shops and quality homeware stores, but also local markets with handcraft and other innovative gimmicks to buy. We could not resist and bought T-shirts especially dyed with African red earth and savannah herbs. Our accommodation called Le Petit Paris, follows the French old style with original walls from more than a century ago. The walls are very clairaudient and we were asked to tone down when in the room, as much can be heard in the room next door... what about French romance in this Huguenots place.....
Disappointed with the degustation's of the previous day we gave it another try later this morning at the Graff vinery. The correct name of the place is 'Delaire Graff Estate'. Lets talk about the owner first, before we talk about his wine. Laurence Graff is an English jeweler and billionaire businessman, best known as the founder of Graff Diamonds. So he made his money in this upmarket luxury segment, where quality consistency of the product and marketing is key. He applied this approach also into wine making. Supported by the best specialists money can
Huguenot heritage
extreme Francophile buy, he build this property to an icon location. Helped with the incredible views which provide the perfect backdrop to the estate’s outstanding restaurants, state-of-the-art winery, exclusive Lodges, Spa, luxury boutiques and art galleries. For these reasons, Delaire Graff has quite rightly gained itself a reputation as one of the leading wineries in the Southern Hemisphere (according to several wine magazines). The cool Atlantic breeze and the mineral rich mountainous terrain, together with the interaction of fog and sun, create these award-winning wines. Particularly impressive are the estate’s red wines, all big in structure, but boasting elegant finishes. Difficult to pick a favorite. We liked the Botmaskop, but bought also other whites and reds. The question how are we going to transport all the 8 bottles in already full suitcases, we wanted to worry later. As long as we had our car no problem, before flying, worse case, we will drink them... The degustation was a big success, needless to say. Another interesting winery which lies across the road from Graff is called Thelema. Our wish was to do another degustation there. But hellas, we stayed long at Graffs and drank more than necessary. As Nenad still had to drive
another 150km until our destination, we thought not a good idea to drink more. So we dropped this plan. By the way, Thelema' Merlots and Cabernets are the ones to go for.
Very 'happy' we continued the last section of our trip towards Gordons Bay. The ocean presented itself in deep blue colors, with the blue sky in contrast and the white wide sandy beach in between. One of the most scenic part of the Garden Route is R44 from Gordon Bay, around Pringle Bay, to Kleinmond. The road cutting into the cliffs, winding from bay to bay reminded Nenad on the Big Sur in California, he curved on a Fat Boy Harley a few years ago. We stopped at the Pony Point Penguin Colony observing them playing in the sand and with the waves. Towards the end of the afternoon as we drove to our final designation Camps Bay (a suburb of Cape Town), the weather started to change and very strong and cool winds came from the direction of the Southern Ocean. The locals call this wind the Cape Doctor, because it cleans the air and brings rain.
As Nenad turned our Nissan into the parking
lot of the African Dream (this was the name of the Bungalow we stayed in Camps Bay), the kilometer reading showed 5'001 kilometers. This was the distance we covered from November 28 till today, December 20th. Crisscrossing South Africa from Pretoria to Cape Town having done safaris, followed the coast lines, climbed mountain passes and crossing incredibly wide spaces, we felt an immediate big satisfaction having completed this trip.
The next four days will be activities in Cape Town and its surroundings we are very much looking forward to. Tonight however was settling in and having a tasty seafood dinner at the Restaurant "Codfather" in Camps Bay. Try their sea food & fish platter, hohooooo, and this with a bottle of wine, South African of course... Thereafter we dropped dead in the Lions Dent, the name of our apartment in the African Dream bungalow.
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I used to live here when I was a child. Best spot, ever!