Franschhoek in mid-winter — photographs

Even in the middle of winter the gor­geous town of Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands enchants. If you are look­ing for a romantic break­away, Franschhoek in winter is a gem with lots of charm­ing places to stay and lots to do in and around the town. Franshhoek’s vil­lage has a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of art and antique shops and gal­ler­ies and the main streets are lined with res­taur­ants and cof­fee shops and things to do. It is easy to spend a day or week­end (or even a week ort two!) here and Franschhoek serves as an excel­lent spring­board to other wine routes and the Four Passes Fruit Route, of which Franschhoek is also part ... Continued

Franschhoek Bastille Day Festival Photographs

Some of our team mem­bers atten­ded the Franschhoek Bastille Day fest­ival on the week­end of 16 July and brought back some won­der­ful pho­to­graphs of the fest­iv­it­ies. We espe­cially like the pho­tos of the Solms-Delta march­ing band — aren't they a hand­some bunch? Franschhoek, South Africa’s Gourmet Capital, cel­eb­rates its centuries-old French Huguenot her­it­age with a won­der­ful feast of food, wine and enter­tain­ment at its annual Bastille Festival. Its a great time to be in Franschhoek and if you haven't been yet, we sug­gest you try to get there next year! Its a won­der­fully fest­ive time ... Continued

Win Franschhoek Oesfees Tickets (Closed)

Oesfees 2011

Winners of this com­pet­i­tion are Netacha Kayser and Megan Johnson. Congratulations, we hope you enjoy the Festival!

SA-Venues.com and Solms-Delta are giv­ing away a total of 4 tick­ets to the Franschhoek Oesfees (two lucky win­ners will each win 2 tick­ets). The 2011 Franschhoek Oesfees music, food and wine fest­ival — a day of tra­di­tional live Cape music, Kaapsekos, and Vastrap — cel­eb­rates the end of har­vest at Solms-Delta Wine Estate, on Saturday the 26^th of March 2011, from 11h00 to 21h00.

Performers include MC Soli Philander, Radio Kalahari Orkes, Valiant Swart en Ollie Viljoen, Stef Bos, Tribal Echo, Hannes Coetzee, Brasse van Kaap and Les Javan. Enjoy unique Cape sounds of vas­trap, langarm, Cape jazz, ghoema, klopse, and boeremusiek by Philip de Villiers and the Blinde Boereorkes, Papier Familie and many oth­ers. The food is authen­tic Kaapsekos avail­able through­out the day. Continued

Franschhoek Motor Museum

Motor Museum

Family were vis­it­ing from Zululand over the week­end so we took them out to Franschhoek and on the way stopped in at the Franschhoek Motor Musuem.  To be com­pletely hon­est I hadn’t even heard of the place but wow, what a col­lec­tion!  Located on the L’Ormarins Estate, the museum is home to a wide and var­ied selec­tion of cars, a few bicycles, a hand­ful of motor­bikes and motor­ing mem­or­ab­ilia! Visitors are able to review more than 100 years of motor­ing his­tory; all in one place.  This is the only loc­a­tion, across the entire coun­try, where the evol­u­tion of the car or auto­mobile can be seen... Continued

Franschhoek Oesfees at Solms-Delta Wine Estate

Franschhoek Oesfees

It's oh so very nearly Oesfees time again and I for one have penciled it into the diary already!  The 4^th annual 2011 Franschhoek Oesfees will take place on March 26^th at the Solms-Delta Wine Estate in Franschhoek.  I went last year and had an abso­lute ball so I would ima­gine that this year will be big­ger and bet­ter than before!

The Franschhoek Oesfees is an event like no other, bring­ing the farm work­ers and farm own­ers of the val­ley to kuier and cel­eb­rate together; giv­ing thanks for the end of the har­vest and the hard work that went with it.  The day is one of live, tra­di­tional Cape music, and proper Kaapsekos .... Continued

Jazz on Friday in Franschhoek starts 29 October

Jazz on Friday

Another reason to be happy its finally Spring ... The new sea­son of Jazz on Friday, fea­tur­ing the Cape Dutch Connection, kicks off on 29 October 2010 and con­tin­ues every Friday until 1 April 2011 from 5.30pm to 8.30pm.  This sea­son, the band will be play­ing at a new venue, Col'Cacchio Pizzeria in Huguenot Street, Franschhoek.

Band leader Derk Blaisse says the venue, which they tried out at a per­form­ance dur­ing the Bastille Festival in July, is per­fect.  “The garden at Col’Cacchio has a won­der­ful coun­try feel and is set against the back­drop of the Franschhoek moun­tains.  Being in the main road we have the advant­age of attract­ing passers-by and the vibe of being in the middle of a cos­mo­pol­itan vil­lage. I think we are going to have a fant­astic sum­mer sea­son.” Continued

Dik Delta, fat-tailed sheep and cows with long horns at Solms-Delta

The cows at Dik Delta

I first hear about fat-tailed sheep dur­ing a first-hand account of the efforts at Solms-Delta in Franschhoek to ensconce a couple of ostriches in the pen with said sheep. Why? They act as a form of watch dog — who in their right mind wants to tangle with an ostrich? Think how you would feel after one of those legs con­nec­ted with you? (bet you didn't know that their knees bend the wrong way, or is that more dip­lo­mat­ic­ally speak­ing, the oppos­ite way to ours?)

It is the fat-tailed sheep, there­fore, that attract me to Dik Delta, the farm's new fyn­bos culin­ary garden — filled with really inter­est­ing and edible plants and herbs. My other half, it must be said, is here exclus­ively for the garden. Armed with a note­book and cam­era, he intends not­ing every one of the indi­gen­ous trees and plants he has yet to add to our already bust­ing at the seams veget­able garden at home (there is only so much you can fit in your back yard in Plumstead) ... Continued

Solms Delta — picnics, heritage and film-making

Solms-Delta pic­nics

I am a fan of pic­nics. Particularly when they are set in amongst vine­yards, sun-dappled trees and blue skies, as indeed this one turned out to be. But I had to have my wits about me, as we became so embroiled in frolic that I was in danger of miss­ing out on the beauty of our sur­rounds – one of the per­ils of the job, but hey, what is a girl to do?

A friend of mine is doing a bit of work at Solms-Delta, the Franschhoek wine farm that is so much more than a wine farm (I won't go into all of that here, but suf­fice it to say, it is really worth a visit — not least for their wines' quirky names, or the re-introduction of desic­ca­tion — an ancient Greek prac­tice that strangles the grapes) ... Continued

Luxurious L’ermitage in Franschhoek

L'ermitage Franschhoek

I don’t often get the oppor­tun­ity to enjoy five star treat­ment, but a night at “The Hermitage” in Franschhoek was a stay to be remembered. L’ermitage is exactly that, a retreat in the heart of the Franschhoek val­ley. The Franschhoek  moun­tains form the back­drop to this beau­ti­fully loc­ated chat­eau and vil­las. Our unit over­looked a quaint little dam, over­shad­owed by the majestic moun­tain range, and a chorus of bird song and duck har­mony greeted our sun­set and sun­rise respectively.

Increasingly pop­u­lar in the hotel con­text seems to be the self cater­ing unit, with the option to indulge in the res­taur­ant and room ser­vice on offer. The villa’s kit­chen was well equipped, com­plete with a com­bin­a­tion washer/dryer for clothes. The unit con­tained its own com­bined lounge and din­ing area, which was over­looked by the open plan kit­chen ... Continued

Get Cooking at La Cabrière Country House in Franschhoek

La Cabrière Country House

I abso­lutely adore cook­ing and am always look­ing for new ways to learn and share exper­i­ences with friends. So I am very happy to have found out about a fab­ulous cook­ing course that is right on my door­step and this is too good not to share ...

La Cabrière Country House in Franschhoek now offers cook­ing courses in the on-site Culinary Theatre presen­ted by Camil and Ingrid where you will learn new and excit­ing dishes with which to treat and wow your friends at home. The course will begin at 14h00 in the open plan kit­chen of the main house. You will be given an intro­duc­tion as well as a menu present­a­tion and an explan­a­tion of the recipes you will be tack­ling dur­ing the course. Continued

The Grill Room in Franschhoek (a review)

The Grill Room in Franschhoek has been open for close on two months now and we gave it a try last Saturday night.  I’m so pleased we did — we enjoyed it so much that I think I should plan ahead now and book a table for lunch for the Saturday of Bastille Day weekend!

Located on the main street, the L shaped build­ing is invit­ing; I loved the seat­ing area out­side (with heat­ers of course for winter even­ings) and I espe­cially loved the black and white ‘pho­tos’ trans­ferred to wall­pa­per.  Very clever indeed.  The red brick walls, wood shuttered win­dows and red lan­terns all add to the aes­thet­ics.  The main res­taur­ant has about ten tables while the butchery sec­tion is smal­ler and a private din­ing area is avail­able for hire upstairs. Continued

24 hours in Franschhoek

Bo La Motte

A friend of mine has made a tra­di­tion of going away some­where for her birth­day.  This year the town of choice was Franschhoek and yahoo, lucky us, we cracked the nod for the (as Bridget Jones would say) mini break away!

Our accom­mod­a­tion in Franschhoek was Pear Cottage at Bo La Motte Farm.  The farm is situ­ated at the base of the Middagkrans Mountains and is one of the nine Huguenot farms settled in 1672.  We arrived just after 2pm on Saturday after­noon and settled into our home for the night — the cot­tages are beau­ti­ful with stone floors, fire­places and com­pletely equipped for a self cater­ing stay (not that one needs that in the gast­ro­nomic town of Franschhoek!) ... Continued

Books, words, literature and Franschhoek — a heady mix from 14 — 16 May

Literary Festival

I don't need an excuse to head out to Franschhoek. The simply gor­geous little wine­lands' vil­lage eas­ily adapts its streets into the site of a party for writers and book lov­ers from around the world, and 2010, the Franschhoek lit­er­ary festival's fourth year, looks like it's set to be even more of a words and wine treat than ever before!

If you're any­thing like me, the chance to rub shoulders with authors, edit­ors, and poets while enjoy­ing debates, fas­cin­at­ing con­ver­sa­tions, talks by authors that range from dis­cus­sions about writ­ing tech­niques to more polit­ic­ally charged debates, leaves you slightly agit­ated. The thrill of being so close to a myriad South African authors, and to hear about the ins and outs of their books and writ­ing tech­niques gives me goose bumps. Continued

Bread and wine in the presence of lemons

Môreson Wine Estate

The Franschhoek val­ley is a ver­it­able patch­work quilt of wine estates. Well, obvi­ously you might say, but really, there is a smor­gas­bord from which to choose, and mak­ing a selec­tion for a lunch­eon is some­thing of an under­tak­ing. I am in no way com­plain­ing, you understand...

Franschhoek is without doubt one of the most gor­geous des­tin­a­tions in the coun­try. Poets, writers and crit­ics have all waxed lyr­ical about the valley's charms. It is the food and wine Mecca of the Western Cape and attracts people from all over the world for this reason, that and the beauty of the val­ley, which never fails to move me. The com­bin­a­tion of loom­ing moun­tains, fields of lav­ender, grapev­ines and quaint, freshly painted Cape Dutch homes com­bine to make it exquis­ite. And on an autumn day, as the vine leaves turn from green through brown to bur­gundy, make no mis­take, Franschhoek is close to heaven. Continued

South Africa's Cheese Festival — it's not just for turophiles!

SA Cheese Festival

When I think of cheese I think of things like cheese fon­due, chevin, goats milk, brie, camem­bert, moz­zarella, feta and abso­lute dec­ad­ence. I like noth­ing bet­ter than sli­cing off a piece of cheese when I walk past the fridge at any time of the day or night and I know there are so many cheese lov­ers around South Africa. You will be excited to hear that the South African Cheese Festival is tak­ing place at Bien Donné farm (situ­ated between Franschhoek and Paarl) from 24 to 27 April 2010.

The first cheese fest­ival was held in 2002 and 12 000 eager cheese lov­ers came to see what the fest­ival was all about. The fest­ival has grown from strength to strength with 22 000 vis­it­ors in 2008 to almost 29 000 vis­it­ors in 2009. Continued