Franschhoek is a village in valley surrounded by
mountains on three sides, with vineyards down every other back street.
The Dutch East India Company gave this valley to a group of around 200
French Huguenots who fled to South Africa to escape persecution in the
17th century.
They made themselves at home, establishing wine estates and giving
everything French names. While the French names, food and wine-making
traditions live on, the descendents of those original French
inhabitants are hard to find today.
Cookery capital
One thing that is not hard to find in Franschhoek is a good place
to eat. The high street houses a large number of pleasant restaurants,
including that of Le Quartier Francais, judged to be the ‘Best in
Africa’ – quite an accolade. It’s pretty well the culinary capital of
South Africa, with no less than eight of South Africa’s ‘Top 100
Restaurants’. There are also a substantial number of craft shops, cook
shops and delicatessens.
Places to stay
There are so many super places to stay in Franschoek. Queen of them
all is the award-winning Le Quartier Francais, but for those who want
something less ritzy, Akademie Street Guesthouses also has that wow
factor at considerably lower cost.
On the outskirts of town, on the way to the Franschhoek Pass, there is
La Petite Ferme and Franschhoek Country House. Further still, Cathbert
Country Inn – buried deep among the vineyards in a completely rural
setting is an old favourite of ours.
There are lots of other lovely places we use and which – La Couronne
for one which is reopening and Klein Genot for another. We will add
them to our website in due course.
Where next?
From Franschhoek, you can head in one of three directions:
south-west to Stellenbosch and on to Cape Town; north to the N1
motorway which soon takes you to Worcester and the start of the scenic
overland R62 route to Oudtshoorn; or there is a lovely drive out of
the valley over a mountain pass to Villiersdorp. From there, you can
descend to the N2 and either drive east to Garden Route or south to
the sea for some whale-watching at Hermanus.
