THE SMART GUIDE REMEMBERING THE PAST Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève. When it’s time for a meal, Geneva not only reveals how cosmopolitan it is, but just how avidly it loves great food and excellent wine. These credentials are very much on display at Alma (alma-geneve.com), a popular address among trendy young Genevans who love swapping the Alps for the Andes while enjoying meals of ceviches, empanadas, tiraditos, and other excellent Peruvian specialities. Italian food just may be the city’s favorite foreign kitchen, and the city’s best trans-Alpine table is Tosca (toscageneva.ch), a Michelin one-star restaurant with freshly made pastas and a superb list of Tuscan wines. In a city that’s Francophone and guardedly Francophile, most of the best restaurants are French. They range from Bayview (restaurantbayview.com), where Michel Roth, who cooked impeccable Escoffier-inspired dishes when he ran the kitchens at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, has won a Michelin star for the technically flawless cooking served in an elegant dining room with lake views to relaxed bistros like the Café des Banques (cafedesbanques.com), in the city’s old banking quarter, to the stylish Le Bologne (lebologne.com), and the very popular Café de la Paix (cafe-delapaix.ch), a brasserie with a locavore menu featuring seasonal French produce. Several other Genevan institutions not to miss include the Café Papon (cafepapon.com), a café-restaurant that can trace its roots back to 1808 and is located in a beautiful stone cellar in the middle of the Old Town next to the Town Hall, as well as Restaurant Le 15 (restaurant-le-15.ch) across the Arve River in the Quartier des Arts, a contemporary bistro popular with gallery owners, museum curators, and artists for the excellent modern European market-driven cooking of chef Jacques Modena, with dishes like cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup and lamb shank braised in port. Au Vieux Carouge (41 223 426 498) in the lively Carouge district is the best address for anyone hankering for a first-rate fondue, and it also serves excellent rösti (a Swiss comfortfood favorite of crispy cakes of grated potatoes with different garnishes). Service here is ornery in a good-natured way, and whatever you do, wear clothing that’s easily washed, because you’ll emerge from a meal at this small crowded place sporting a potent lactic perfume of melted cheese. FOR A REVIVING STOP while shopping or gallery hopping, stop by La Vouivre (tearoomlavouivre.ch), Geneva’s most eclectic tearoom, which has a memorable decor of purple silks and antique chandeliers. In addition to Viennese-style coffees, tea, and freshly pressed juices, there are delicious sandwiches, pastries, and homey desserts like plum crumble. Attractive, compact, and walkable, Geneva is a shopper’s delight for watches—most of the major Swiss watchmakers have boutiques in the city—but the place to go for a comprehensive selection of different brands and excellent service is Les Ambassadeurs (lesambassadeurs.ch), which attracts a discerning international clientele, including many collectors. Another destination shop is Les Illuminés Design (lesilluminesdesign.ch), a gallery-like store that specializes in pedigreed 20th-century design, including furniture by Romeo Rega and Gianfranco Frattini, chandeliers by Gianfranco Sarfatti, and 1950s vintage Vallauris ceramics by Robert Picault. Take a really savvy cold-weather gear tip from a knowing local: Geneva native Marc Denton, general manager of the Fife Arms Hotel in Braemar, Scotland, who rightly recommends Coup de Chapeau (chapeaux.ch) for its spectacular selection of hats, from straw boaters to handmade felt broad brims, gloves, and other accessories. For cutting-edge women’s clothing, including smart French labels like Isabel Marant and A.P.C., stop by L’Adresse (ladress.ch). A little bit of Geneva can come home with you by picking up a couple of bags of freshly grated fondue mix from Au Gruyère (augruyere.ch), a venerable local cheese shop that opened in 1952. (These mixes freeze well, and other famous local cheeses, like the shop’s namesake gruyère, can be vacuum-packed for travel.) And because every good trip should have a sweet ending, join the Genevois in their fetish for highest quality chocolates at Auer Chocolatier (chocolat-auer. ch), which sells some of the best—a fittingly sweet souvenir of a city in full bloom. DANIEL STAUCH GENEVA AIRPORT TO CITY CENTER: 3 miles 20 NetJets
