Franschhoek

Monday...what better way to start the week than with winery tours?? We started the day by sleeping in...yessssss. Much needed after two early AM wake ups and 30+hours of traveling. We had breakfast at our guest house and our host here helped us choose a few wineries to check out. I drove us to our first stop, a couple miles outside of town. Franschhoek is tiny, compared to Cape Town at least, so I was pretty sure I could get us there safely.

The first winery we toured was La Motte. It was beautiful! Very extravagant and fancy. We pulled in around 11 am but decided it was ok to start drinking that early..it was almost five o'clock (am) in Wisconsin! We sampled 8 wines there, took a few photos and hit the road back into town.

We parked the car at our guest house and checked put the Huguenot Memorial, then started walking to the next winery. Buuut the midday African sun got the best of sand we turned around to get the car again. Good call because the next winery was a few kilometers away, uphill, and it was not the type of place you would like to show up to drenched in sweat. La Petite Ferme was the name of this place and it.was.gorgeous. At La Motte I told Ryan that was the prettiest place I had ever been, but once we got to La Petite Ferme, I was eating those words. It is for sure the prettiest place I've ever been (so far!). We ate lunch and then sampled a few wines, buying one bottle and a cookbook, which the owner signed for us. The waiters were giving Ryan tips on which ones were easiest for him to cook for me... We'll let you know how these turnout!

After La Petite Ferme we parked the car at the guest house and walked to the third winery, Mont Rochelle. It was a long, hot walk and the service we had was pretty underwhelming, so I don't have much to say about that stop. We bought one bottle, blazed a short cut through the vineyard, and headed back to the guest house for a nap.

Tonight we had a fun "tapas" dinner, trying springbok (south african deer-like animal, also the name of the country's rugby team that everyone is crazy about) for the first time. We had sticky-bun ice cream for dessert. Look out Ben and Jerry, we're bringing this one back to America!