10 January 2013

MY FRANSCHHOEK ON FOOT

My recent holiday to Cape Town was full of little surprises,the first of which was doing a detour on the drive down, into the village of Clarens.To read click here
The second was to actually spend a day in the beautiful town of Franschhoek rather than just pass through en route to other Cape destinations!

As you are aware I love to walk around cities and towns, as you are just able to see soooo much more on foot and you get a real sense of the place and the people.
Sightseeing on foot allows you to see the good and sometimes the not so good areas,so caution is always recommended and I always ask for advice as to where are the "no go" areas are before I venture out!

I personally found that a long weekend or at least a couple of days in Franschhoek would have suited me better, as there were so many good wineries,restaurants,coffee shops and boutiques to visit, that a day was certainly not long enough to really enjoy all that this town and its environs has to boast about and offer!
Below is some background info and some of my photos that I took during "My Franschhoek on Foot" Enjoy!

Franschhoek ("French Corner", (Dutch spelling before 1947 Franschen Hoek) 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 kilometres from Cape Town and has a population of 15,353.
The attributes of the village have turned Franschhoek into a popular tourist destination, with dozens of bed & breakfasts and small cottages available for accommodation at premium prices as well as a large used bookstore.Once a sleepy country retreat, the village began experiencing a boom since the 1990s, and property prices have sharply increased. The ideal summer weather, snowy peaks in winter and proximity to Cape Town have turned Franschhoek into one of South Africa's most sought after residential addresses.

Franschhoek is notable for having some of the top restaurants in the country within its quiet borders. 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 one of the TOP 50 restaurants in the world, according to the "S.Pellegrino world's 50 best restaurants"-ranking and a famous Belgian Pâtisserie for Belgian pralines.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franschhoek































No comments:

Post a Comment