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loving South Africa

The glorious Grotto beach, 15 kilometres of beautiful sand is 3 kilometres from our house.

Morgenster Olive Oil, voted one of the top Olive oils in the world. We discovered it last year on the Rovos rail journey.

One of our favourite vineyards, Vergelegen, it is one of the oldest and has the most beautiful gardens, fabulous wines and three great restaurants.

The above meal was at Waterkloof, another vineyard in Somerset West, one of the best, wonderful service, food and views. 

Hermanus

We are now staying in Hermanus, about 120 kilometres from Cape Town, the town is renowned for whale watching from June to December, when the southern right whales come in close to shore to calve. We shall miss this spectacle it being summer here but the beautiful coast line and  coastal  path which we walk each day more than makes up for it. We are enjoying this wonderful view from the house we are staying in, almost as good as the one at home!

The coastal path runs for 10 kilometres.

Our love of cats took us to the Drakenstein Lion park, a home for 34 rescued cats which are certainly now in a better place.

Food and wine are very much part of our holiday, the wine is I think is the second best in the world (after France of course) , we have been to the USA, New Zealand and Australia and the wines in South Africa are really quite exceptional.  Furthermore many domains have exceptional restaurants attached producing stunning food at very good value.

Last week we ate at Jordans vineyard, just out side Stellenbosch, Karen had Mussels in Papillote with lemon grass and coconut, whilst I had line caught Stuisbaai Elf - yes Elf. For main I ate roasted springbok with a plum tarte tatin and Karen had Gnocchi with roasted cauliflower all of which were amazing.

And my soufflé challenge continues , honey and poppy sead beautifully executed.

On our winter holidays.......

Time for our winter break and as last year we return to South Africa where we can find the nearest existence to France as possible with great food, fine wine and wonderful scenary as well as friendly people.

We are starting in Franschhoek staying in the aptly named Maison Chablis. Franschhoek , we are grateful to the 277 French, known as Huguenots who landed in the Cape of good Hope in 1685 and were given land by the Dutch colonial government creating this gorgeous French Corner.

Our chambre D'hote Maison Chablis

Franschhoek 

The main street is lined with boutique's and many fine restaurant's, a number of which are feel obliged to try!

Ain't no sunshine...........

I was out running this morning, trying to beat the impending rain fall! sometimes the sky is not blue !

The rain won!

A winter lunch

One of the many things we love about France is the importance of lunch. Another thing that we have taken from our move here is the wonderful people we have met and become friends with.

And what is better on a January day than a four hour lunch.

We started with home smoked Salmon fillet with tapenade toast, for main course an onion tarte tatin, pictured above.

accompanied by a bean and artichoke salad. 

our friends David & Jane have an eye for setting the ambience!

Cheese course, we were being spoilt!

And dessert followed, winter fruits with chartreuse ice cream.

Delicious!

Winter in the Luberon

It's not so bad!

Lovely sun rise on a frosty morning

Our lemon tree is producing a good crop - G&T anyone?

The balmy (or barmy ) weather continues

The end of December and early January have remained under high pressure with dry weather, for a few nights the  temperatures fell to as low as minus 6 with clear skies by night and day when it warmed to about 11 or 12 although it felt warmer.  However we have experienced some incredibly mild days, yesterday it was 18 in the shade mid afternoon and today in full sun our thermometer hit 38 degrees. Quite extrordinary compared to our experience in years gone by.

So on a perfect Sunday walking is order of the day and we set off for a pleasant 7k traversing up Chemin de Romanet into the hills and back to the village giving outstanding views.

There was only one thing for it on return, a glass of rose!