Geneva Offers the Best of France in Switzerland

Watching small children laughing as they ride miniature carrousels set up on the sidewalks and in the parks of this joyful and cosmopolitan city, it’s difficult to realize that it was once the most morally unbending town in Europe.

The austerity began in 1536 with the arrival of Frenchman John Calvin (nee Jean Cauvin), who preached the Reformation with dictatorial fervor for three decades and turned the town into the Rome of Protestants, even burning a Spanish doctor at the stake for dissenting theological views.

Calvin would have been more than chagrined to know that the university he founded became a crucible for the post-Reformation ideas of native son Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for Voltaire, Goethe, Victor Hugo and other renowned thinkers, all drawn here by Geneva’s flourshing intellectual milieu.

Geneva is the capital of French-speaking Switzerland, and while you’ll hear a polyglot in cafes and hotels, French is the lingua franca . The city butts up to France, with some streets Swiss on one side, French on the other.

It’s also a very beautiful city, curving gracefully around Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), with a picturesque Old Town riding a hill on the south side of the Rhone River, and lovely parks, gardens and smart shops on the north.

Getting here: Fly Swissair, TWA, KLM, Air France or Lufthansa. A round-trip, advance-purchase economy ticket will cost from $658 to $1,113, depending on airline, season and day of the week.

How long/how much? Give the city and its galaxy of museums and sights at least two full days, with perhaps another for driving along the Swiss or French side of the lake. We found lodging and dining costs surprisingly moderate for a major European city.

A few fast facts: The Swiss franc recently sold at 1.5 to the dollar. Best time for a visit is from April until mid-June. Summers are the most crowded, falls lovely. Strangely enough, Geneva usually gets little snow in winter, unless you go less than four miles into the Alps.

Getting settled in: Le Chandelier (Grand Rue 23; $86 to $126 B&B; double) sits on a wonderful little pedestrian street filled with antique shops at the heart of Old Town. It has a tiny, wood-paneled lobby and minuscule elevator, and the bedrooms are spacious yet modest. Breakfast is served in your room at this quiet small hotel.

Hotel Touring-Balance (Place Longemalle; $106-$120 B&B; double) is at the middle of shopping on the south bank, a short walk from the lake front and Old Town. Modern bedrooms have mini-bars and TV, and there’s a good restaurant with a pretty terrace for summer dining.

Mon Repos (131 Rue de Lausanne; $93-$110 B&B; double) is across the street from a huge garden that fronts on the lake, a few minutes from the north bank’s center. It’s large and modern, with a pleasant restaurant, bar and terrace on the lake side.

Regional food and drink: The French border crossing is three miles away, so menus here are loaded with good things Gallic, plus the wonderful cooking of Savoy and the Jura.

Geneva claims longeolle , a pork-and-beef sausage cooked in the oven with sliced potatoes gratin, as its very own dish. The same for fricassee genevoise , a delicious beef ragout much admired. Lac Leman towns also take pride in the perch fillets sauteed with lemon, served with French fries and caught right outside the front door.

Vineyards on the lake’s sunny slopes produce 6 million gallons yearly, the red Gamays and white Perlans being the canton’s pride. You’ll also see plenty of good French and Italian wines.

Good dining: Brasserie Lipp (8 Rue de la Confederation) has become the gathering place for tout -Geneve, just as the Paris Lipp is for tout -Paris. You’ll find the same type of brasserie food: sturdy, satisfying and served without frills. Try the cassoulet of Toulouse, choucroute (sauerkraut with smoked meats) or perhaps a ragout of pig’s feet with mushrooms and buttered noodles. This place is jammed at all hours.

Les Armures (1 Rue du Puits Saint Pierre) is a 13th-Century building hard by the cathedral and city hall in Old Town. It’s really three restaurants on different floors, all too atmospheric to believe. They serve everything from $30 menus in the Salle des Chevaliers to fondue for $11 in Le Carnotzet, a typical Swiss fondue-raclette cellar.

Restaurant du Cent Suisses (18 Chemin de l’Imperatrice) is in the Chateau de Penthes, a small castle near the Palais des Nations. While it’s a casual place, with paper tablecloths and napkins, you’ll see folks from the United Nations here having the buffet for $12 or the plat du jour for $9. Cent Suisses also has a daily menu for $18, with wines by the glass.

Going first-class: Le Richemond (Jardin Brunswick; $266-$300 double) has been a labor of love and perfection for the Armleder family since 1875, during which time the French writer Colette lived here, and Charlie Chaplin, Marc Chagall, Joan Miro, the Aga Khan and other notables were frequent guests.

Le Richemond is a study in what an Old World luxurious hotel should be: Damask walls, burnished-wood paneling, gilded baroque mirrors and flower arrangements made with loving care. Bedrooms of equal ambience have balconies overlooking the lake.

The hotel’s Le Gentilhomme restaurant whisks you straight back to the 19th Century, including 1892-vintage wines. Eighteen pounds of five different caviars are served daily from the trolley.

La Perle du Lac (128 Rue de Lausanne) has a beautiful view of Mont Blanc across the lake to go with its marvelous French food and romantic setting. Expect to pay $46 to $73 for five-to-seven-course menus.

On your own: Start with a slow walk through Old Town, then take in the 13th-Century Tavel House for a look at early life in Geneva. The Museum of Art and History can’t be missed, nor a visit to Petit Palais (Renoir, Monet, Chagall, Picasso). Geneva has 30 museums, with the new Red Cross Museum (founded here) one of the most moving.

Now take a ride on the lake in a Mouette (sea gull) steamer. The Jet d’Eau, a stream of water shooting almost 500 feet high from the lake, is Geneva’s trademark. It’s either a fantastic work of contemporary art or the world’s tallest monument to faulty plumbing.

And chocoholics can’t miss Du Rhone Chocolatier (at 3 Rue de la Confederation), which boasts “the most expensive chocolate in the world but also the best.”

For more information: Call the Swiss National Tourist Office at (213) 335-5980, or write (222 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 1570, El Segundo 90245) for brochures on Geneva, hotels, walking tours and the region. Ask for the Geneva package.