Franschhoek Unlimited is a blog featuring news and articles from the Franschhoek Tatler, the new Franschhoek Style magazine that has now been launched as well as the Village Idiot of Franschhoek and others who will be added to the blog as authors at a later date. You can read more about the Franschhoek Tatler and the Village Idiot further down the page. Franschhoek Unlimited is the official blog of the unofficial tourist website www.franschhoek.co.za aptly named Franschhoek at your Fingertips.
Franschhoek is indeed a beautiful place. The village of Franschhoek is nestled deep in its own valley in the midst of vines and surrounded by impressive and majestic mountains on all sides. Franschhoek is a valley of contrasts, both physical and social. On the social and human side Franschhoek has both great wealth and poverty mingling together in close quarters. Franschhoek has palatial mansions and magnificent vineyards scattered around the valley as well as shacks and shanty towns of the informal settlements. In between these two extremes, Franschhoek has the formal government housing structures built for the poor and a few scattered middle class homes in the Franschhoek Village.
There are organisations and churches in Franschhoek seeking to uplift the plight of the poor in the Franschhoek area, most notably FRANCO (Franschhoek Resource and Network Co-ordinating Organisation) which endeavors to raise funds and plow them into projects to benefit the needy. Franschhoek Unlimited will endeavor to give space to FRANCO to assist them in their mission. Others provide soup kitchens and assist creches in the informal settlement, and in some instances it the poor who are endeavoring to help the poor without much help from the rich, such as Anne and Theresa Boonzaai, who twice a week give soup to the hungry at the clinic.
Franschhoek is a tourist destination of note, in fact, in our opinion, it is one of the tourist jewels in the Cape’s tourism crown. Many visitors from all over south Africa and the world come to Franschhoek. Most of the businesses in Franschhoek are tourist related. The streets of Franschhoek are lined with shops geared for tourism. There are art galleries, craft stores and stalls and an abundance of restaurants, many of them among the top restaurants in the country. Franschhoek is literally littered with Guest houses, B&Bs, Self Catering Accommodation and Cottages, Hotels and Group Accommodation. Without tourism Franschhoek would be just another small farming village, allbeit a most beautiful one, and nearly all of these tourist related businesses provide employment and opportunities for the underprivledged of Franschhoek.
Franschhoek main industry is undoubtedly the wine industry. Vineyards and wine estates are scattered throughout the valley, many of them with long histories, others fairly new on the scene, all producing fantastic wines. Franschhoek hosts many wine celebrations as well as the Bastille Day Festival where Franschhoek’s wines are showcased.
Franschhoek Unlimited will bring you all the news and views on all these aspects of the Franschhoek Life. Many of the articles in this Franschhoek Blog are published in the Franschhoek Tatler with permission of the Tatler’s editor. The Franschhoek tatler is the monthly community newspaper in Franschhoek, owned and edited by Siegfried Schafer. The tatler is a valuable source of information for all the news, events and issues in the Franschhoek Valley and Franschhoek Unlimited brings it to you online in a blog format.
Franschhoek Style is a new magazine featuring the very best of Franschhoek. The magazine is published by Siegfried Schafer of the Tatler and Franschhoek Unlimited will place certain articles from the magazine on its pages.
Other articles are the personal view of the Village Idiot who seeks to bring out the absurd, the ridiculous, the silly, the incredible, the preposterous, the ludicrous ETC ETC in the everyday news, both village news and, well, any news, both national and international. There is much of the above in the events of everyday life, politics, business and sport to fill countless blogs. The Village Idiot will endeavor to bring you some of it.
Gary Scott