BAY OF ANGELS from Mickael Preston

France in Europe

South Africa in Africa

The concept of 'twinned cities' is not new, and anyone driving through Europe will be used to seeing those signs bearing three or four different national flags and stating with pride that the city about to be entered is 'twinned' with other cities, with often unpronounceable names, around Europe or the world.

I had never questioned the basis on which cities, towns, or villages are twinned until, having lived for some years in Cape Town, I returned there on holiday and noticed a sign proclaiming its 'twin city' status with Nice. I suppose that somewhere vaguely at the back of my mind I knew that the connection existed, but when I lived in Cape Town the chances of ending up on the Cote d'Azur seemed so remote that the train of thought was shunted into a siding and remained there until one day, sitting bleary eyed after a 14 hour flight from the depths of winter on one side of the world to mid-summer on the other, I began a mental balance sheet of the similarities and differences marking the twin cities of Cape Town and Nice.

Cape Town is a capital city, Nice merely a regional capital. South Africa, perhaps uniquely in the world, has three capitals. Cape Town, the seat of government, Pretoria, the legislative and administrative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital. Johannesburg, although the main commercial centre, and hub of transportation, is not a capital.

The area around Cape Town is one of the richest and most fertile of the African continent, and here some of the world's finest wines, rivalling any that France produces, originate. The French introduced the method by which South African wines are made to this day, although the Dutch planted the first vines. Viticulture in the Cape has a relatively brief but interesting history. In 1656, Jan van Riebeeck planted the first vines in the Dutch East India Company Garden beneath one of the world's most spectacular natural landmarks, Table Mountain. In 1659 he wrote : " Today, praise be to the Lord, wine was made for the first time from Cape Grapes." Most of the cultivars are still known by their French names, and many farm and estate names, particularly around Franschhoek, are French. Vineyards have existed on the slopes of Table Mountain for almost 300 years, and some of the area's greatest wines come from wineries situated only 20 km. from the city centre, in the exclusive suburb of Constantia.

Nice

In 1688, the Huguenots, religious refugees (or outcasts, depending on point of view) from France, settled in the Groot Drakenstein area, which is now the hinterland of a village called Franschhoek (French Corner), with a fascinating museum, dedicated to their memory, and a graceful memorial garden, with a monument, ornamental fountains, and graveyard. The setting is a beautiful and tranquil valley, an hour's drive from Cape Town. The first part of the drive takes you out of Cape Town round the lower slopes of Table Mountain, passing the famous Groote Schuur Hospital (where heart transplantation techniques were pioneered by Dr. Christiaan Barnard), then past some of South Africa's most depressing and squalid slums and squatter camps near the airport. After this, the bleak Cape Flats surrender to the Hottentots Holland mountains, and Franschhoek is quickly reached via two splendid mountain passes, on roads which are well maintained and engineered - a great contrast to the disgraceful condition of many roads inland from Nice.

Cape Town

Cape Town is also a coastal city, situated on a natural harbour, Table Bay, sheltered from the Atlantic by the Cape Peninsula. Cape Town used to be one of the world's major ports, with passenger and cargo liners from the four corners of the globe regularly calling. Although air travel has deprived Table Bay of much of its passenger traffic, it is still an important centre for marine engineering and ship chandling, and has the largest dry dock in the Southern hemisphere. There is an incorrect, but romantic, belief that the Southern tip of the Cape Peninsula is the most southerly point of Africa and the divide between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact this honour correctly belongs to Cape Agulhas (the Cape of Eels, named by the Portuguese) some 100 km. east of Cape Town. Cape Town also derives shelter from Table Mountain, upon whose slopes the city is encroaching. From the top of Table Mountain, reached in 6 breathtaking minutes by cableway or a couple of hours' hike for the fit, the magnificence of the area can be seen and admired, and it is easy to see why Sir Francis Drake considered this 'the fairest Cape in the circumference of the Earth', with its miles of beaches rivalling the 'Baie des Anges.' At this point, a quotation about Angels would be appropriate - unfortunately the only one which comes to mind ( " ... scenes so beautiful that flights of angels must have gazed upon them... ") refers to the Victoria Falls, some 1000 miles north of Cape Town, and was penned by another great African explorer, Sir David Livingstone.

Although the descendants of the original French settlers have for generations been totally assimilated into South African, essentially Afrikaans, society, and have lost their identity, many relics remain. Many Afrikaans names are of French origin, and at least on paper are recognizably so. Names such as Du Toit, De Villiers, Du Pre, and De La Buschagne, are common, although Afrikaans pronounciation and spelling renders them (perhaps mercifully, as this must be one of the world's ugliest languages) unrecognizable to French ears.

France - Alpes maritimes

Much of the coastal scenery in and around the Cape Peninsula is similar to that of the Alpes Maritimes coast, particularly the drive from Nice along the Basse Corniche to Monte Carlo, which recalls the coastal road from Cape Town through Camps Bay and Clifton to Hout Bay. There are mountains as close to Cape Town as to Nice, although they are not as high and snow is rare even on the highest peaks.

Finally, although the seasons are reversed, Southern Africa's winter being the summer in Europe, Cape Town has a so-called Mediterranean climate. The Nicois, however, can consider themselves lucky to be spared the curse of the Cape Town summer, a strong South Easterly wind known charitably as the Cape Doctor, because it blows away the dirty air. Unfortunately, as it howls and rages for days on end, it also blows people off their feet, ripping doors from their hinges and sending loose objects hurtling on a trail of destruction. This does nothing to deter holiday-makers from the inland cities of the Transvaal from enjoying their annual vacations on the Cape's beautiful beaches, in the same way as the sun-starved people of Northern Europe descend on the Cote D'Azur in summer.

I wish you all an enjoyable Christmas on the Cote D'Azur, with the snow on the mountains an hour's drive away. As you partake of your Christmas cheer, think of the people in Nice's twin city, 5,500 miles away, enjoying their Christmas dinners in the midsummer heat, around their barbecues, swimming pools, and on the beaches. Spare a thought also, at this time of the year, for those less fortunate than ourselves, that they may also one day enjoy Christmas as we do.