Franschhoek is still beautiful. The mountains are still there, the wine estates still matter, and the official story is still food, wine, and views. But the charm we remembered had faded.
Eight years after our last visit, the village felt quieter, more controlled, less spontaneous, and less comfortable after dark. We stayed two nights, but already knew after the first that it had been enough.
It is impossible not to compare Franschhoek with Yountville in California. Both are wine country towns built around a single main street lined with shops, restaurants, and hotels. Walk from one end to the other in fifteen minutes, and you have more or less seen it all. Both even have a wine tram to shuttle visitors between estates, because apparently even wine tasting now needs infrastructure.
In Yountville, Thomas Keller is the sheriff in town. With several restaurants and food businesses in a town of around 3,500 people, most of them on or near Washington Street. He even has a vegetable garden across from The French Laundry, yours to explore for a whopping $100 a head, because apparently owning half the town was not quite enough.
In Franschhoek, they have real cowboys. A guard with a real gun in his holster and a bulletproof vest, standing outside a hotel on the main street. In broad daylight. That was new.
Last time we were here, it felt cosier. It felt safer.
Washington Street Yountville Napa Valley
We checked in at Le Quartier Français. Last time we stayed at Leeu House, but it was fully booked. The first impression took my mind straight to Hotel Villagio in Yountville, where we stayed in 2023. I could not tell you why. Just a feeling.
The same motel-like quality hung over it. Our suite was superb and comfortable, the air conditioning worked, perhaps too well (I know, mind-blowing coming from me), but the hotel felt impersonal. Designed for a brochure, not for a stay.
Le Quartier Français, Leeu House, and Leeu Estates all belong to the Leeu Collection, founded by Analjit Singh. The La Colombe group fills the dining rooms.
Between them, they have shaped much of what Franschhoek has become.
Singh once said he wanted to “refresh” Franschhoek because he found it repetitive, the same offering everywhere. His answer was to buy more of it.In Yountville, Keller did the same thing, only he started in 1994.
One main street. Two men. Same story, different hemisphere.
Leeu House
Big trucks ploughed through the main road. I asked about it while sitting outside French Connection, sipping rosé, waiting for the wiener schnitzel. Is there construction nearby? No, she said. Normal traffic. Wow.
I love the interior of French Connection. Like walking straight into a time machine. But the food felt tired, as if the restaurant had its golden age some years ago. We would not recommend dinner, but sitting outside with a glass of wine and some fries works. You need the salt in the heat.
French Connection
Most of what remains on the main street is women’s clothing shops for the 55-plus crowd, some galleries, and a Checkers supermarket with a Starbucks inside.
One walk up and down, and you are done. Same as Yountville. Not much to see. You sleep here and you dine.
But where do you actually eat here if the La Colombe group does not appeal? Épice, Protégé, La Petite Colombe, separate doors leading into the same system.
Lunch at Grande Provence felt overwhelmed by tourism. Guests arrived from the wine tram in waves, and lunch felt more like part of a tourist circus than a wine estate experience. The food arrived without delay, but the cooking had gone missing.
We also tried Reuben’s, probably one of the more serious dining rooms in town. That description carries more weight than it should.
Reuben’s
The best meal we had in Franschhoek came from The Conservatory at Leeu House, a resident-only hotel restaurant. A steak and fries, done right, nothing more. An all-day hotel dining menu outperforming standalone restaurant we tried in the so-called culinary capital of South Africa. Let that sink in.
In the evenings, with nothing reserved, we ended up at Allora on the square. Restaurants on all sides, tables outside. When we arrived, it was almost empty. We thought the season was over.
The longer we sat there, the more tourists appeared. More tables were carried out. People come here because other people are here. It felt safe. Good for a pizza and a beer, nothing more.
On the walk back, we passed by Taki’s. It was packed, loud, and full of energy, the kind of holiday noise that almost felt like bliss in a town this quiet
When we asked the hotel for restaurant suggestions, they offered to pick us up afterwards by car. It is 400 metres, on the main road. Then I remembered what I had read about Chamonix, where two guests in their sixties were attacked by masked men in the middle of the night in August 2025.
The police station has one response vehicle to cover the entire valley, and local businesses hold weekly meetings about security.
People told us to take care if we walked here after dark. Eight years ago, we did not think twice. This time, we thought twice, and walked anyway. But with our eyes open.
Franschhoek is not falling apart. That would be too easy, and probably unfair. We were there in late March, at the end of the season, and maybe that played its part.
The town is still beautiful, still full of people working hard to keep the tourism alive. Property prices are up, hotels are full, and the official story is still food, wine, and mountain views.
But underneath that polished version, something has changed. You feel it in the tension that sits beneath the stillness, even during the day.
Tourism is the lifeblood of Franschhoek. Everyone seems to know it is under pressure. The guard outside a hotel is not there for show.
We stayed the two nights, although we already knew after the first that it had been enough. In Yountville two and a half years earlier, one night was enough, and we left early for Four Seasons in Calistoga. Here, the room was already paid for.
We left for Leeu Estates.
Franschhoek has transformed into something quieter than quiet. Some shops gone. The charm that once drew us here has been polished away.
What replaced it are properties and restaurants that all trace back to the same few names. When a town is controlled by a handful of people, it stops being a destination and starts being a set.
Franschhoek and Yountville, neither of them is worth a night. A daytime visit is enough. Use a hotel nearby as your base and drive in for lunch. That is the move.
At the end of the main street sits Franschhoek Cellar. Not a destination in itself, but they make one wine worth buying. The Last Elephant, a Bordeaux-style blend named after the last elephant seen leaving the valley in the late 19th century.
Franschhoek was originally called Oliphants Hoek, Elephant’s Corner, and the town flag still carries an elephant at its centre.
The wine is good, but the story is better.
We bought a bottle on our last visit and liked it. This time, we went in just to buy it again. We already knew the story. A sad one, but a good wine
The last elephant had the right idea.
We do not think so, but you never know.
