Franschhoek is a small town in the Western Cape Province and
one of the oldest towns of the Republic of South Africa.
It is about 75 kilometers from Cape Town and has a
population of slightly over 15,000 people. Franschhoek's original inhabitants
were the Bushmen.
In 1688 French Huguenot refugees began populating the valley
establishing farms and businesses bringing with them their experience in
agriculture. The name of the area soon changed to le Coin Français ("the
French Corner"), and later to Franschhoek (Dutch for "French
Corner"), with many of the settlers naming their new farms after the areas
in France from which they came.
This heritage is shown today by the Huguenot Monument which
stands at the end of the town. The Cape Dutch architecture in much of the
village is unspoiled.
Franschhoek's weekend Bastille Festival has been celebrated
every July since 1994, the year of the first South African general election
with universal adult suffrage marking the end of the apartheid era.
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