Back up at 10:30am, to find the room done as usual, and the washing that I had left in the bath to be done had been taken as well.
We just lay on the bed and snoozed - the staff came and restocked the fridge, and SS lay on the balcony for a while in the sun whilst I read my book on the bed. My 2pm, my washing was returned all dried and ironed beautifully as well!
At 3pm we decided to head out, so we showered again, and got in the car and drove up to Dieu Donne. The tasting room had just closed when we got there, so we just took some photos and then headed back halfway down the hill to Chamonix.
The tastings were held in an old Blacksmith's lodge, with tables outside.
Here we had a nice relaxed tasting, with a basset hound this time for entertainment.
He wasn't particularly friendly tho'. The wines were OK, but not worth taking up suitcase space for, we bought a bottle of Rouge 2007 as it was only R30, although they still charged us for the tasting on top of that at R15.
Back into the Sombrero and we drove along to the road to Stellenbosch to go to Boschendal. The setting was beautiful, and we paid for a premium tasting.
For a change they lined up all the wines at once and left you to the tasting. Not sure if this is the most effective way, but hey ho.
We didn't buy anything, and instead decided to head for Mont Rochelle to see if we could still sneak a tasting there. Unfortunately we got there just after 6pm, so the tastings had finished. Instead I asked the man at the boom gate if we could go and have a drink at the bar instead - the views were supposed to be lovely.
He was happy with that, so up we went to the bar area.
We sat outside on the terrace, and were joined by a lovely cat who rubbed our legs for half an hour. The barman brought us out a glass of Syrah and a glass of Cab Sav, with some nibbles, and we settled back to enjoy the spectacular views.
The place was so nice that we checked the menu for the restaurant, and on the way out we booked a table for our last night in Franschhoek.
We had a table booked that night at Bon Vivant at 8:30pm, so we headed back down the hill and showered again before dinner.
Le Bon Vivant unfortunately was not serving the light dinner I had expected, so we picked from the a la carte. We really should not have eaten the snacks at Mont Rochelle as even though we had not had any lunch (just shared a packet of crisps), we were stuffed before we sat down.
It was a nice place - a converted house with the entire garden turned over to tables. We were outside under a small rondawel with three other tables - two couples and one table of 3. The other tables were SO dull, we were the only table really talking at all. All made a bit more awkward when one fat middle aged bloke on one of the tables took a shine to me. Unfortunately his back was turned to me, so every few minutes he would spin around, give me a huge smile, and then turn around again. Most disconcerting.
I ordered the soups to start with, SS had tuna. My soups were fantastic - beautifully presented three soups served in individual glasses. The first was celery - the best. Second was lemon consomme which tasted like dishwater. The third was beef which was nice and spicy. Served on the side was a chicken wing (which SS ate for me) and a battered kingklip nugget which was lovely. S ate most of his tuna, before saying "it really needs soy". He had missed the little jug of soy sauce on his plate, but ate the rest of the tuna with the sauce which much improved it.
We both had the vegetarian for our mains, which was stunning, if a little cheesy.
In the centre of the plate was a stack of polenta, tomato rounds and courgette, all topped with a crispy ravioli filled with courgette and camembert. On one side of the plate was a pile of cheese risotto topped with a camembert dumpling. On the other side were some fresh sticks of vegetables held together in a courgette ring, topped with a parsley leaf trapped between two thin wafers of potato that had been deep fried. Neither of us could finish it, but we agreed it was very nice. SS had a glass of Chamonix Rouge, but I stuck to water.
We waddled back to Akademie Street, discussing the constellations above us. SS had been discussing stars the previous day with KP, so I had thought that perhaps he knew something, but he was reduced to pointing vaguely upwards and muttering about star shaped things.
Back to the room, and I had some peppermint tea to settle my full cheesy stomach, and then off to sleep...
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