Franschhoek

We made a quick stop at the Rhodes Memorial on our way to Cape Town's wine country. Zimbabwe used to be named after this British colonialist, and his 19th century mining fortune still funds a scholarship at Oxford University.

Dan, a Francophile, picked Franschhoek--which means "French corner" in Dutch--because Huguenots settled here in the late 1600s after escaping religious oppression in Europe.  It was one first areas to be colonized in South Africa which has a complicated history to say the least.

Members of my family once belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church.  My father even preserved the credo of something called the Dutch League which may be associated with it. I'm not religious, but I was drawn to the simplicity of this building even before I knew the denomination once worshipped here.  

Dan purchased a beautiful vase from some local potters, a welcoming father and daughter who provided an excellent lunch recommendation.

Whoever decorated Le Petit Dauphin had an eye.  Even the rooster is color coordinated.

Dan tasted the reds, including a delicious seven varietal he let me sip.

I know I'm given to hyperbole but I can't remember ever enjoying a lunch and a slowly sipped glass of wine more.  The lovely setting added immeasurably.

That seven varietal complemented my meal perfectly.  I started with chicken liver parfait

. . . continued with squash ravioli

and concluded with lemon meringue pie (that's at least four inches for you size queens).

No more wine for the designated driver.  Which in my case also required using my left hand to shift manually and sticking to the left hand side of the road, both of which were challenging even when under the influence of my favorite soft drink.

Next stop Stony Brook, where I paid more attention to the lazy dog and gorgeous scenery than to the dessert wine that Dan purchased.

The Huguenot Museum (if you could call it that) didn't allow photos.  Fortunately, the Huguenot memorial and cemetery did.  As you may have gathered by now, I have a thing for cemeteries.  To quote Rush, a great, underrated movie, "The closer you are to death, the more alive you feel."

Crafty souvenir shops line the main drag in Franschhoek.

Anthonij Rupert is such a large operation that it conducts wine tastings in two buildings. Dan chose the mansion that belonged to the original owners.

They purchased the right to use South Africa's first postage stamp as the basis for these labels.

We ended our day at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, a tourist magnet with some good shopping.  It's named after the Queen's second son who began construction in 1860.

Dan summarized our day while we got an eyeful of the harbor lights from a ferris wheel.   Both of us took advantage of the pensioner rate for the first time.

See for yourself the oryx Dan bought.  Horace now grazes in Manhattan where rent stabilization laws protect him from capitalist predators.