Geneva, Switzerland

The little guide to Geneva.

I grew up coming to this lovely city at least twice a year, if not more. I feel more at home here than anywhere else, so I thought it would be appropriate for this to be the first installment of the city guides.

Hotels:

• Hotel des Bergues, recently renovated, and an institution in Geneva. Right near Pont du Mont-Blanc, cross it and you are right on the “Rive droite” the main shopping area (Rue du Rhone), Cours de Rive and a few steps away from the vieille ville (old town)

• Other main hotels on the left bank are the Beau-Rivage (which is getting a face lift right now), the Richemont, hotel d’Angleterre and l’hotel du Rhone. These are the hotels where all of the jewelry shows and sales take place

• La reserve http://www.lareserve.ch/ is the “it hotel” right now. If you can’t stay there (because it’s a little out of the way) definitely try to go for a drink, lunch or a spa treatment. The décor is fantastic and unusual. The is a boat leaving from the centre of town to take you there.

Restaurants:

• La libéllule, boulevard Helvetique 32 (see things to do) – now closed

• Tea Room, avenue Henri-Dunant  (see things to do)

• Patisserie Philippe Taillé, rampe de Cologny 20 (a little out of the way from where you will be) is our favorite. DH loves the tarte aux Quetches and cheese croissants and you have a beautiful view overlooking Lake Geneva.

• BG Café, rue du Marche 34 (see things to do)

• Restaurant les Armures, 1 rue Puits-St-Pierre http://www.hotel-les-armures.ch/fr/restaurant-geneve.php Institution in Geneva for traditional meal

• La Coupole, hands down the BEST steak tartar I’ve ever eaten, not trendy or chic, formal old school http://www.lacoupole.ch/pages/rotisserie.htm 15 rue Pierre Fatio

• Café des Bains, 26 rue des Bains, one of my favorites http://www.cafedesbains.com/v1/index.aspx

• Café des Negociants, Rue de la Filiature 29, Carouge, another favorite http://www.negociants.ch/

• La Brasserie Lipp, a classic, 8 rue de la Confederation, Confederation Centre http://www.brasserie-lipp.com/

• Café du Centre, classic, great for Perches, 5 Place du Molard http://www.cafeducentre.ch/carte.html

• Le relais de l’entrecote, 49 rue Du Rhone, all you eat there is steak, frites, salad and profiterole and they are the best at it!

• Le lyrique, http://www.cafe-lyrique.ch/ 12 boulevard du Theatre, near Place Neuve & le jardi des Bastions, fun in warm weather to eat on the patio

Things to do:

• Walk la rue du Rhone, even if you are not going to buy anything, it makes Madison Avenue look poor!

• Walk up to the old town, its lovely and have coffee on the main “place”

• Walk up la rue de la Corraterie to the “Parc des Bastions”, it is quite pretty. On a warm day all the old folks play checkers at the entrance of the park

• Wednesday and Saturday mornings are for the flea market at the plaine de plainpalais. Some days you don’t find anything and others there are gems! Also on the east side of the park “av. Henri-Dunant” there is a lovely little pastry shop and tearoom (Epi Dore, Francisco Lucia), which is totally worth a stop (and maybe a place for Kevin to read the paper while you do the flea market).

• Another stop is the Saturday morning “marché” au Carrefour de Rive. The BEST fruits, vegetable, cheeses, jams, baked goods. I love it there. The quality of the produce is unreal and its fun to see all the wealthy “Genevians” with their Hermes purses do their errands. There is also a little café called “la libéllule” witch is fun for a coffee and ham croissant or apricot tart.

• Next to the market there is the actual “Carrefour” walking through there is really great, there are a few fun bistros with really good steak tartar (the meat in Switzerland is the best I’ve ever had and I don’t eat meat) and raclette.

• Walk through the “Parc des Eaux Vives”

• Globus department store and the lower food level

• The bon Genie store, also fun little restaurant (BG Café) on the top level (they also sell La Duree macarons there)

• Walk around Carouge, lovely old neighborhood; take the tram to get there, place du temple is quite pretty

If you can rent a car I would:

• Visit the Chateau de Coppet, its halfway between Geneva and Lausanne (about 30min) http://www.swisscastles.ch/Vaud/coppet/ its quite beautiful

• Drive to Lausanne (1h) and have afternoon tea at the Palace Beau Rivage in Lausanne http://www.brp.ch/de/navigation.php Go on a sunny day, its so stunning, with the lake and the mountains right behind it; it will make you want to move!

• In Lausanne there is the Olympic museum and many other noteworthy ones like: Fondation de l’hermitage http://de.fondation-hermitage.ch/ et le musee d’art brut http://www.artbrut.ch/

• If you keep going on the main road (9) or take the Lakeside road for 45min you end up in Montreux (site of the world Jazz Festival). On the way there you will see all the Swiss vineyards too! This is a beautiful little town, it looks like the St Tropez/Monaco of Switzerland with Palm trees and all…just to give you a taste check out the Palace hotel: http://www.fairmont.com/montreux/

List from my childhood friend Emily, who is a true “Genevian”. She was such a sweetheart and took the time to list her favorites (in french)

RESTAURANTS:

- Le Comptoir, on adore, attention, ne prennent pas les cartes de crédits!!!!, 9 rue Richemont

- l’opéra bouffe, près de la place des Eaux-Vive, on adore!

- Café Zinette (un peu excentré, mais super sympa!) 45, route du Grand-Lancy, 1212 Grand-Lancy

- Universal Café (n’ai pas testé depuis le changement de proprio, mais entendu bcp de bien) 26 bd du Pont-d’Arve, 1205 Genève

- Demi-Lune café (sur la place du Bourg de Four), petite carte, mais super ambiance et salle non fumeur… super pour boire un verre aussi, restau aussi bien midi que soir, mais pas très “chic”

- Misuji, pour moi, les meilleurs sushis de Genève, certains puriste penseront plus au Myako (rue Chantepoulet), bvd du Pont-d’Arve 49 1205 Genève

- L’Adresse, 32 rue du 31 Décembre.1207 Genève (J’adooooooore!)

- Chez Lipp, un incontournable… rue de la Confédération 8, 1204 Genève

- Les Negociants, à Carouge, 29 rue de la Filature 1227 Carouge

- L’Armoire, sympa, c’est bon, en plein centre ville…rue du Vieux-Collège 4, 1204 Genève

- Le Sesflo, super bon!!! nouveau, un peu excentré, à la route de Florissant

- Da Paolo, l’incontournable italien… près des quais, donc sympa pour une balade après…

- Le Gruyerien, les meilleures fondues et raclettes!!!Rue de Chêne-Bougeries 2, 1224 Chêne-Bougeries

BARS

- Le Qu’importe, à Carouge, super ambiance, petite restau (charcuterie et tapas je crois…)

- La Clémence, super terasse au bourg de four

- L’Auberge du Cheval Blanc, PLace d’Armes, à Carouge, tapas…

- Le calamar (aussi restauration midi-soir),

- L’Alhambar, Rue de la Rotiserie

- Les salons de théophile (dans la rue qui monte depuis Bel-Air)

- La capocaccia (aussi restau, super bons produits italiens, assez trendy chic… genre bcp d’after work)On était surpris en bien par les paninis!!!

- SENSO LOBBY, assez huppé…rue du Rhône 56, 1203 geneve

BRUNCH et PETITS DEJ

- Le Pain Quotidien, bio, bons, on adore! boulevard Helvétique 21, 1207 Genève (aussi un à Champel et à Plainpalais)

- O CALME , rue Ancienne 36, 1227 Carouge

- Wolfisberg, Carouge, près de la place du marché

Click here for more recommendations from Aline here

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