Steering clear of the frou-frou look you might expect from a place that takes its Gallic-inspired identity quite so seriously, this is one of the coolest hotels in Cape Town to come home to after a day of serious wine-tasting. Smack dab in the heart of Franschhoek village, this über-upbeat auberge (as sassy world-wise owner, Susan Huxter, insists on calling it) is set back from the main road behind its two sensational restaurants (see Eat) and an exuberant flower-filled garden. Bedrooms are either arranged in Victorian-style cottages around the handsome pool in the central garden or, if you’re splashing out at the even more exclusive Four Quarters, on ether side of a more private and modern solar-heated pool. The latter suites (there are just four) are of the over-generous variety-enormous, with lovely extra luxuries (including a sweet-tempered private butler named Mr. T). Susan decorates each room personally, marrying classic and modern elements to her exacting standards; including the regularly-changing artworks (which you can plunder after due negotiations). The wonderfully relaxed atmosphere will, in all likelihood, ease you into a coma. If that doesn’t do it, a session in the spa probably will.