South
Africa - Day 18
Sunday 8th February 2026
Participants: Kev & Tam
We have a quieter day planned today as we're going to La Petite Colombe tonight. It's one of the best restaurants in Franschhoek and is on the Leeu wine estate.
We wander into town to look around and have breakfast at Smitten where we can use the 250 Rand voucher that Jan gave us when we arrived. It's a nice little spot and the service is excellent as it has been nearly everywhere we've been. I have scraMbled eggs in a brioche bun with mushrooms and smoked salmon, Tam tries a 'Morning After' which is spicy ostrich mince with a homemade naan, poached eggs and raita, It's huge, so she can't eat it all. With cappacino each and the 250 Rand voucher the bill is around £15.
After brekkie we stroll around the town and down to the Huguenot monument. Back up through the town we stop in various shops and art galleries as well as browsing the stalls selling tourist nik naks. Tam even manages to find a top she likes in one of the normal shops in Franschhoek as most of the places are art galleries (lovely to browse, but out of our price range) and high end fashion places.
I quite liked this little chap in one of the galleries. Might be a job convincing British Airways staff that he's within my luggage allowance.
Back at the cottage we decide to take a
drive up the Franschhoek Pass. It was closed when we drove here
and remains so for most of the week, but it's open on Sundays.
This proves to be an excellent decision as we wind our way up the
side of the mountain. The roadworks mean another of those
enormous one way stretches (this one lasts for over a mile) where
you wait for many minutes until it's your turn to go.
At the top there is a viewpoint that gives spectacular views down
through the Franschhoek valley. It's really stunning if a little
breezy. It's overcast today with the occasional patch of blue
sky, but pretty windy.
We drive back down and return to the
cottage to relax by the pool for a couple of hours. The sun isn't
out much, but our pool area is a good barrier to most of the
wind, so it's pleasant enough with tempertaures in the mid 20's.
The weather is not forecast to be good for our last few days with
lots of rain and some heavy thunderstorms. Not good for us, but
excellent news for the locals as there's been a drought for a
long time with many water shortages nationally.
Our relaxing is cut short by rain, so we move inside and get
ready to go to La Petite Colombe. It rains fairly heavily for a
couple of hours, but miraculously eases off just as our Uber
arrives. It's only a short journey, but the sun starts to come
out and there are two beautiful rainbows over the mountains.
When we arrive we walk around the beautiful gardens. We are amazingly lucky as the sky to one side of us is clear blue while the sky on the Franschhoek side is dark and thundery with the two rainbows. It's incredibly pretty as we walk through the gardens with nobody else around. Many photos are taken and we can't believe how fortunate we've been to catch the short spell of sunshine.
We go into the restaurant where we are greeted and lead to the lounge to enjoy a cocktail. I have Bourbon Hibiscus Sour and Tam has a sort of Margarita. We are also served an array of snacks. The most striking is the olives - only they are not olives - but they are olives. Allow me to explain. They have deconstructed the olives and then reformed them into a hard shell with olive oil inside. We are advised to pop the things into our mouths whole otherwise you may end up with a lap full of oil. They are lovely as are the other snacks.
We also get to peruse the menu. The chefs menu is 8 courses and we are going for that. We don't do the wine pairings as it's nearly £100 per person more. We just choose from the extensive wine list.
This is the wine list. I've seen Haynes manuals thinner than this!
The food is lovely although we enjoy some dishes more than others. For us the lamb was very rich and I found the cheese dish to be a little weird.
Another of those 'not quite what it appears' things. This tomato is made from tomatoes and tastes lovely.
Bread course.
Tuna.
The fish course.
Coal roasted lamb, harissa, tagine.
The slightly strange cheese course. Loved the cheesy plate though.
While I had the cheese Tam had this - honey, chamomile and apple. She loved it.
The dessert trolley.
We finish with 2 macchiatos and then take
our last glasses of wine into the lounge to finish. The bill
comes to 5813 Rand (nearly £250), but we have already paid 100
Rand as a deposit, so the final total is actually around £340
including the added 13.5% tip. The cheeky beggars charge extra
for the coffees and water! Even so we are glad that we did it.
The gardens are incredible, it's definitely worth arriving early
to look around.
Uber back and in bed at 10.30 pm.
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