The land on which we provide these days quality accommodation in Oranjezicht was once used to grow vegetables and fruit for the incoming ships on their route to Asia or back to Europe but also for the burghers of Kapstaad.

The Oranjezicht Farmstead was acquired by Nicolaus Laubscher, a Swiss immigrant, in the 1670s and named by him so, because of the good view onto the Oranje bastion of the Castle of Good Hope the place where all the produce went to. After his death in 1721 the farm was bought by Pieter van Breda and kept in his family for 7 generations. In 1940s this once biggest farm in the Upper Table Valley was sold to the City of Cape Town and the Homestead of the Oranjezicht Farmstead was demolished by the City of Cape Town in 1957 despite plans to transform it into a museum. It had to make space for a bowling green. The old barn lies directly opposite our entrance. Visible from our garden is the old bell tower and walls. If you wander around a bit on the playground you will actually find  a lot of remainders of this once glorious estate.

The park and playground were a bit run down by the mid of the last decade but it has now improved significantly under the care of a civil society group, well visited by residents and the old barn is used for neighbourhood meetings and boy scouts activities.

We also learned that in such close proximity lies a very important spring, Stadtfontein, the biggest amongst other smaller springs but more of this after a walk with Carol von Zeil and learning details of her project Reclaim Camissa.

Just before there are only 11 parts of this year 2011 left we want to wish everyone  splendid and joyful months ahead !

We want to use this space to inform you from time to time about developments at Lézard Bleu, to post an extraordinary guest comment from our non-virtual guest book or bring you some exciting news about Cape Town.

We were lucky to start this New Year being witnesses to the happy wedding of Michaela Weitzler and Peter Hofmeister, both from Austria, who stayed with us over Christmas and New Year, when they committed themselves to each other under our roof on the 6th of January.

It was definitely one of the hottest days so far this summer and after the official part here they were quite happy to escape to the beach for the ring ceremony.

You may find more pictures of this lovely couple on our facebook page.

Bye for now and best wishes

Chris and Niki