Our second day in wine country started with a lovely breakfast at our hotel.

After breakfast, we headed over to Babylonstoren, a beautiful vineyard known for their extensive gardens. You can do an official tour of the gardens and property, but we didn’t quite have the time so we just meandered through them on our own and then stopped for a glass of wine at the restaurant.

After Babel, we headed to La Motte – a great vineyard with fabulous wine on a gorgeous property. They actually have some hiking trails available but again, we were shorter on time so we settled for a simple wine tasting instead.

We loved both Babel and La Motte and would say that they should be at the top of your list to visit in Franschhoek and if you have time, I suggest hiking La Motte, doing the garden tour at Babel and eating in their restaurant. Although we didn’t try the food there, after seeing the garden I have to think that the food must be great.

For lunch we went to The Kitchen at Maison Estate. It’s a great restaurant in a beautiful setting, the deck spilling out into the vineyards of the property.

Later that afternoon we spent some time on the main street downtown, sipping on coffee, exploring all of the little shops and admiring the local art. Then we got ready for a big, special dinner at The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français. The Tasting Room is ranked as one of the top 100 restaurants in the world (#72!) and we had so much fun experiencing why! We did their surprise, 8 course tasting menu with wine pairings. Unlike most places like this, you don’t receive the menu until the end of the meal so each course is a surprise experience. Also, some of the “wine pairings” were actually beers or cocktails – whatever they felt went best with the dish – so that was fun and new! Another very unusual thing is that after the third course, Michael and I received different dishes for each course so that you were able to experience more from the chef! It was 4 hours of feasting and fun and is another MUST do! But like the Test Kitchen you have to book early – they fill up!

Other posts in this series: Cape Town Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4. Wine Country Day 5.