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

The Franschhoek Oesfees — review of a great festival

Franschhoek Oesfees

On Saturday I atten­ded the 3^rd annual Franschhoek Oesfees and oh my good­ness what a great day it was.  I was lucky enough to be offered two com­pli­ment­ary tick­ets, includ­ing meal and drink vouch­ers.  My hus­band is away on busi­ness so my brother was the recip­i­ent of the 2^nd ticket and we headed off to Solms Delta wine farm in the Franschhoek Valley, arriv­ing at midday.

One of the main pur­poses of this fest­ival is to cel­eb­rate and acknow­ledge the hard work of the Valleys farm work­ers – I mean let’s face it, those grapes don’t pick them­selves from the vine!  It was won­der­ful to see the owner of Solms Delta (the baas van die plaas as he said in his intro­duct­ory speech!) thank­ing his farm work­ers for bring­ing in such a boun­ti­ful har­vest ... Continued

The Franschhoek Literary Fair 2010 — a celebration of books and writers

FLF

I have recently joined a book club and while it has con­firmed my sus­pi­cions that book clubs are there for a good gos­sip, tasty wine and snacks, there is a con­sid­er­able amount of time set out to dis­cuss books. Something that in my opin­ion does not hap­pen enough.

While we have a large selec­tion of per­son­al­it­ies and book tastes in our group we do all share one com­mon pas­sion. The love of the writ­ten word. I am rel­at­ively new to the group and have joined a very well read group of indi­vidu­als and I often find myself slightly intim­id­ated by the sheer volume of books that have been devoured by the group. Not to worry I have set myself a chal­lenge and that is to com­plete the 2 books I take out each month, which I might add I am find­ing more dif­fi­cult that first ima­gined ... Continued

Summer season of Jazz on Friday drawing to a close

Jazz on Friday

There are just four more ses­sions of Jazz on Friday until the sea­son closes for winter.

Derk Blaisse, spokes­man for the Cape Dutch Connection band said that they have had a won­der­ful sum­mer season.

“It’s been a sea­son filled with many great moments and bril­liant guest artists – we were even lucky enough to host singer James Stuart and Steve Brooker, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s dir­ector and con­ductor, who joined us on the piano. We’ve also had fant­astic sup­port from the local Cape Town and Winelands com­munit­ies and from tour­ists vis­it­ing the area. Without excep­tion, every single one of our per­form­ances this sea­son was a great suc­cess.” Continued

Jazz on Fridays in Franschhoek

Cape Dutch Connection’s Jazz on Friday, which kicked off on 30 October at La Brasserie in Franschhoek, is hav­ing one of its most suc­cess­ful sea­sons ever, says leader of the jazz band, Derk Blaisse. According to Blaisse, the Friday even­ing per­form­ances are attract­ing audi­ences of up to 300 at a time ... Continued

I ♥ Franschhoek because ...

I ♥ Franschhoek

Hi, I’m Chris von Ulmenstein from Whale Cottage Franschhoek in Franschhoek, in the Cape Winelands of South Africa.

FRANSCHHOEK IS BEST KNOWN FOR being the Gourmet Capital of South Africa, hav­ing an extra-ordinary selec­tion of excel­lent res­taur­ants dis­pro­por­tional to the small size of the vil­lage.   At least one of its res­taur­ants, and as many as three, have been in the Eat Out Top 10 res­taur­ant list every year, includ­ing Le Quartier Francais, Grande Provence, Reubens,  Monneaux and Bijoux.

Franschhoek is also known as the Wedding Capital of South Africa, with week­end after week­end booked out when a wed­ding or two takes place on a wine estate in the beau­ti­ful val­ley ... Continued

Wining, dining and music at Solms-Delta

Concerts @ Solms-Delta

Hey la la, hey la la, hey la la — our voices were jiv­ing, our hips sway­ing and our fin­gers click­ing in time to Robbie Jansen's slightly smokey voice as he gave vent to his own inter­pret­a­tion of Cape jazz — a fusion of musical influ­ences ran­ging from tra­di­tional Cape Malay 'goema' and African rhythms to funk and salsa — in a song that most every­one knew, and I couldn't help but learn given its enti­cing tune.

We were at Solms-Delta wine estate just out­side Franschhoek for one of their renowned sun­set sup­per con­certs, ostens­ibly to cel­eb­rate the arrival of sunny days and long, balmy even­ings — neither of which showed up for our con­cert — but this didn't stop us thor­oughly enjoy­ing ourselves, blankets wrapped around our legs and shoulders ... Continued

A weekend in Franschhoek

Franschhoek

Friends got mar­ried at Moreson Wine Estate last week­end so we used this as a good excuse to spend the week­end in Franschhoek.  It was a lunch time wed­ding and we live in Cape Town, so strictly speak­ing two nights in Franschhoek was not really neces­sary but then again, it’s Franschhoek and it’s always a treat to spend time in this beau­ti­ful town!

We arrived on Friday even­ing and there is some­thing quite spe­cial about driv­ing through the val­ley as the sun is set­ting.  We really do live in a coun­try with the most breath­tak­ing scenery ... Continued

Franschhoek Sunset Drive

Winelands Drive

The fam­ous gour­met cap­ital of the Western Cape is the wine val­ley of Franschhoek. As a val­ley it is cradled between moun­tain ranges that dis­play a spec­tac­u­lar view over the lus­cious vine­yard region. Pack a pic­nic with your favour­ite bottle of wine and take a drive to watch the sun set over this beau­ti­ful val­ley. Its so romantic and beau­ti­ful, it makes a per­fect spot for pop­ping sig­ni­fic­ant questions!

As you drive into Franschhoek on the R45, the Main Road namely Huguenot Rd (named after the village's French set­tlers) leads you to a T-Junction at the the land­mark Hugenot Monument. At the T-Junction turn left onto Lambrecht Road (which is still clas­si­fied on a map as the R45) and scoop your way along the moun­tain road wind­ing up moun­tain curves singing 'We'll be com­ing round the moun­tain, when we come ...'. Continued

Franschhoek Photographs

Todays "photo of the day" is in fact 3 pho­to­graphs taken in Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands. The French corner of the Cape, Franshoek lies in one of the most beau­ti­ful wine val­leys in the world, just 45 minutes’ from Cape Town ... Continued

Heads we take the N1, Tails the N2

Franschhoek

One sunny morn­ing, two national high­ways that lead you to Franschhoek and three reas­ons to visit; in order of appear­ance scenery, wine and food. Be warned though what starts as a happy break­fast in a little town whose name trans­lates to “French Corner” will evolve into an even hap­pier lunch and a bor­der­line ecstatic din­ner. All accom­pan­ied by the con­tinu­ous reappear­ance of the very same three reas­ons you decided to visit; the view of the Gods, the juice of the Gods and the food... oh my God!

Franschhoek is known as the gour­met cap­ital of the Cape and even has its own three sources of nat­ural spring water that is bottled in the val­ley. It is not unusual when din­ing at any of Franschhoek’s world class res­taur­ants to see framed accol­ades and reviews tak­ing res­id­ence on the walls as a mark of inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion of cuisine excel­lence. Four courses in and phrases like ‘I couldn’t pos­sibly fit another bite in’ morph them­selves along­side a bottle of deli­cious local vin­tage into ‘well you only live once’. Savour local game dishes glazed with a French sig­na­ture from eight of South Africa’s Top 100 res­taur­ants (some loc­ated on wine farms and some on the Main Street). Continued

The French Charm of Franschhoek

Franschhoek

Meaning French Corner, Franschhoek, was first col­on­ized by the French Huguenots in 1692. One of the most fam­ous attrac­tions in the town remains the Huguenot Memorial, with its dis­tinct­ive three arches, rep­res­ent­ing the Holy Trinity and the woman, hold­ing a bible and broken chain, sym­bol­iz­ing these early set­tlers escape from reli­gious oppres­sion, which is loc­ated at the end of the main road. When enter­ing Franschhoek, one is imme­di­ately aware of an air of relax­a­tion and eleg­ance, and on any given day, the streets are lined with hol­i­day makers and leis­ure seekers.

A cul­tured and refined little town, the French influ­ence on the cul­ture and archi­tec­ture is vis­ible almost any­where, and many of the Franschhoek attrac­tions reflect this his­tory. The town hosts a large array of annual fest­ivals, ran­ging from the Bastille Festival, com­mem­or­at­ing the towns his­tory, to the Franschhoek lit­er­ary fest­ival, wine, cham­pagne and cheese fest­ivals to name a few, all dis­play­ing the same air of refine­ment that the town itself is renowned for. Continued