Franschhoek and Stellenbosch

We spent our last 9 days in Franschhoek. Although we have stayed in Franschhoek before, this was our first time at 1 De Villiers Airbnb. De Villiers is definitely our favourite as it had a wonderful covered patio and pool area. Also, it was so well equipped – the cutlery, dishes, appliances and sheets were all high quality.

There are so many wonderful wineries to visit in Franschhoek and Stellenbosch area – we visit for the scenery and the food but we also enjoy the wine. Wines in South Africa are so inexpensive – a very nice bottle of wine is under $15CAD (and some under $10CAD due to the excellent exchange rate).

Margaret and John joined us in Franschhoek for 4 nights – we had such a good time eating at some of our favourite wineries and relaxing back at De Villiers. We all agreed that our lunches were all wonderful, so it was hard to pick our favourite.

The scenery at the wineries is stunning.

We visited the Franschhoek Motor Museum which maintains a collection of vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles dating back over 100 years. The museum is located in Franschhoek and is owned by billionaire Johann Rupert. Although the museum’s collection exceeds 220 vehicles only 80 exhibits are available to view at any one time. As a result, the display keeps changing which is why we have visited several times over the past few years. There are four de-humidified display halls/barns and also a track as most of the vehicles are in running order.

We visited the Dylan Lewis Sculpture Garden with John and Margaret. We all enjoyed it even more than last year as we had a guide and learned about the creation of the garden and also Lewis’ artist development from childhood to present. Our guide took us into areas of the garden that we had not seen last year.

More than 60 sculptures have been carefully placed along 4 km of paths. Our guide explained that the garden project began in 2009 when Lewis hired an excavator to create a level play area for his children behind their farmhouse. This was the beginning of what would become a 7-hectare sculpture garden (it took 2 years to complete but the guide mentioned that Lewis is still making changes). The garden is a stunning backdrop for Lewis’ sculptures.

We arrived back in Toronto on March 16th and are now back at the cottage. This was a shorter trip to South Africa this year, but it was a very special time especially as we almost didn’t get to go. South Africa still has a special place in our hearts and we hope to return next year.