We
decided that today we would probably skip wine tasting for the day
and instead go and have a look at some of the local villages. The
wine country is dotted with loads of different places to explore and
all of them sound attractive. All of the guide books you see and
read focus on Stellenbosch as the main town, Franshoek and Paarl as
the key centres in the area. As we’re staying at Paarl we decided to
spend most of today having a look at the other two.
We started in Franshoek which is meant to be a quaint place
with nice shops and lots of good places to eat. Stef sums it up a
little differently as “bums and bistros”. They had friendly staff at
their information office who gave us a map of the vineyards in their
area and confirmed that the main street was home to lots of little
boutiquey shops. Within seconds of leaving the office we encountered
the first of several “bums”. Even though it was still relatively
early, they were definitely wobbly on their feet and not because
they had been tasting the local produce. Franshoek was the first
place where we’d noticed that the people hanging around were drunks.
The main street is very picturesque. A Dutch Reformed church
is prominent on one side and shops and bistros line the other. It
all looks very old at first sight but many of the shops are in mini
malls which have a very definite “made for tourists” feel to them.
In fact we both felt that the whole town was geared towards the
tourist market, and the affluent end at that, as it was simply
boutiquey shop, bistro, shop, bistro all the way up the main street.
What I think used to be a charming village now to me seems very
manufactured.
At the end of the main street is an imposing monument to the
French Hugenots who fled Europe and settled in South Africa. They
were encouraged to come here by the Dutch East India Company who
needed more farmers to help settle the Cape and establish it as a
permanent refilling stop for the shipping trade. The Hugenots were
wanted for their wine making skills and knowledge and were
instrumental in the establishment of the wine industry here. It must
have been a tough time for them though as they had had to leave most
of their possessions behind them when they left France for the
Netherlands and were only able to bring essential necessities with
them on the voyage south.
There is a small museum to the Hugenots at the end of town
with loads of information about their fate in London and the early
days of settlement. There are period pieces of furniture and some
possessions (bibles, lace, tableware etc) on display. The museum’s
annex also provides a centre for genealogical research to help
people trace their family roots back to these early settlers. One
panel proudly shows that notable politicians, actresses and sports
people are all descendents of these original Hugenot settlers.
From the museum we made our way to another Franshoek (which
means French corner) institution a place where you can try over 40
different cheeses from around South Africa. However as we found out
it is not a place to go to at lunch time. If you come at lunch time
you can still taste a variety of cheese but by having the cheese
platter in their restaurant, which we did. There were bries, blue
cheeses, hard cheese and goat’s cheese, all quite tasty but none
that really made a great impression on us. It wasn’t helped by a few
very persistent flies who not only liked buzzing around us all the
time but who also took a shine to Stef’s wine and decided to go for
a swim in it!
Leaving Franshoek behind we made our way on to Stellenbosch
and this time were able to get a walking tour map of the town. The
map shows the location of the old historical buildings in town, many
of which still exist and some of which you can go into. First on the
list is the old town arsenal, a small building surrounded by a high
wall which as yesterday was firmly locked up. On the corner is the
Fick House, the old Burgher’s house, a smallish building which is
now used as offices but which you can go into. The rooms are simple
but with impressive pieces of furniture and a gleaming kitchen out
the back. A very ornate rose garden is off to one side.
Across the road is the old coachman’s cottage, what now seems
to be just a large open room that is perhaps hired out for
functions. We ambled across the central square,the braak,
making our way towards the Stellenbosch museum. There is loads of
fabulous architecture in this town to keep your eyes entertained and
although modern shops are now housed within the buildings they have
managed to keep an old world feel to the place.
The museum was great fun to visit. It is made up of four of
the oldest houses in town, all of which have been lovingly restored
and furnished to give you an idea of what it was like to live here
at different periods in history. Ladies in period dress are on duty
at each house and they explain a little about the house and what
life was like. The first house you visit is the oldest and simplest
built circa 1709 by Sebastian Schröder, a messenger of the court and
furnished in the typical style for 1690 - 1720. The house was
gradually expanded and developed over the years but the rooms are
still today very simple. Beaten earth floors, rustic furniture
occupy surprisingly large rooms where the family would eat, sleep,
cook and dry various different types of food. Not so long ago
someone who was born and raised in the house came to visit the
museum and helped them to recreate the rooms as he remembered them.
Next we went into the Blettermanhuis built in 1789 by
Stellenbosch’s magistrate and furnished for the 1750 – 1780 period.
It was quite a contrast with very spacious rooms, grand furniture,
tiled floors and lots of large windows bathing the interior in
light. The man and lady of the house had separate rooms which they
would use to entertain their friends. The lady’s room was very
feminine with a small piano, lots of chairs for her visitors to sit
on and several foot warmers ready to keep them warm on cool days.
The man’s room was much simpler with a sturdy desk, pipe rack and
guns ranging along the wall.
The Grosvenor house was initially built in 1782 and was
extended several times until its current form was finalised in 1803.
Furnished in the style of 1800 – 1830 it is grander still and was
the first house with an upstairs floor. In one of the parlours is a
unique upright piano, one of only five in the world, where the
strings stretch up above the keyboard rather than down to the floor.
Finally we made it to the Bergh Huis built around 1850 and furnished
for typical houses of that time. It was a true Victorian statement
of wealth. Highly ornate wallpaper lined the walls downstairs, the
same pattern in each room which was unusual. The rooms were stuffed
full of bits and pieces that had been acquired on the family’s
travels, again a statement of wealth. The dining room had a
fireplace and upstairs was a bathroom, another first.
Playing with perspectives in Stellenbosch
After the museum we spent half an hour or so just ambling
around more of the streets looking at the old buildings and soaking
up the atmosphere of the town. We both wished in some ways that we
had spent at least a night here as the town has a very welcoming
atmosphere. It may be something to do with the fact that it is a
university town and there were lots of young people out and about.
It had its fair share of nice looking cafes and restaurants and one
of them provided a warm spot to relax for a while and watch the
world go by.
Back in Paarl we were steeling ourselves for yet another one
of Marius’s dinner recommendations. We had booked a table before
leaving this morning, a precaution that we hadn’t really needed to
take because it wasn’t full. Noop’s is run by a chef who used to
work in all the posh hotels and restaurants of the world. When he
was little he loved Snoopy, couldn’t pronounce the “s” and became
known as Noopy, dropping the “y” to name his restaurant. He has
brought very high quality food and wine together in his restaurant
but is charging very reasonable prices for it. We bucked the Paarl
trend again and walked there, about 300 minutes from Skinkikofi, and
were both glad to have the opportunity to walk off yet another
fabulous meal before hitting our pillows.
