Geneva by night - my addresses and my thrills
This article is part of a series. To read the first part, click on the following link: Who am I really?
The first thing I was told when I arrived in Geneva was that the city closes early and people don't talk to each other. That's true on the surface. But there is a parallel Geneva - the one inhabited by people with money, time, and the habit of living well away from prying eyes. That Geneva never closes. It simply starts later, more discreetly, and in places you won't find on TripAdvisor.
After four years frequenting this city professionally and personally, I have my addresses. Places where I feel at ease, where the staff know me without ever asking questions, where the atmosphere does half the work before the evening has even begun.
The Hotels - Where Anything Can Happen
The Beau-Rivage, on the Quai du Mont-Blanc, is in a category of its own. It is the quintessential Geneva hotel - 1865, white façade, lake views, staff in white gloves. I have spent evenings there I will never forget. There is something about that place that amplifies everything: the luxury, the secrecy, the awareness of being somewhere where History with a capital H has slept. My clients who stay there are generally in a different register from others - older, more composed, accustomed to that level. The lake-facing suite in particular has a marble bathtub and a view that makes people generous.
The Four Seasons des Bergues is different - more international, more contemporary. This is where people from the Gulf stay, Americans on European business trips, UN delegations with unlimited budgets. The ground-floor bar, the Café des Bergues, is one of my favourite spots for a first drink. Soft lighting, deep armchairs, a discreet barman who doesn't look twice if you change tables to join someone.
For more low-key appointments - clients who prefer not to be seen in the grand hotels - I appreciate the N'vY Hotel on Rue de Rive or the Kempinski for its location and relative anonymity. Hotels where no one looks up when you take the lift at midnight with someone you don't appear to have known for very long.
The Bars - Where the Tension Builds
The Bar du Richemond remains my favourite place to begin an evening. It is where everything truly started for me - I have a kind of sentimental attachment to it. But beyond that, it is a place with a rare atmosphere: intimate enough for a conversation to quickly turn personal, busy enough that you don't feel observed. The cocktails are excellent. The staff have that Swiss quality of being perfectly professional without being cold.
For a more contemporary feel, the Leopard Bar at the President Wilson has its loyal regulars. Lake views, international clientele, music at a volume that allows conversation without raising your voice. It is there that I had one of my most electric exchanges - a Lebanese businessman who had a way of watching me speak as though every word I said mattered. We spent two hours at the bar before going up. I can still remember the tension in the lift.
For something more confidential, there are a few wine bars in the Eaux-Vives neighbourhood - I won't give the names because they are small and their discretion is precisely what makes them valuable. Vaulted cellars, close-set tables, candlelight. The kind of place where you find yourself sitting very close to someone without having needed to decide on it.
The Restaurants - Where Desire Simmers Slowly
The restaurant at the Hôtel de la Paix, on the Quai du Mont-Blanc, for dinners where the client wants to impress without overdoing it. Fine cuisine, impeccable service, tables spaced far enough apart that a hand placed on yours goes unnoticed. I have been invited there six or seven times. Each time, dinner lasted more than two hours. Each time, what was happening beneath the table was more interesting than what was on the plate.
For clients who prefer absolute intimacy, some order in-suite - room service in a grand hotel, a table set in the room. It is actually a configuration I am quite fond of. No need to manage the gaze of others; the evening is already in a space that belongs to us. There is something immediately more intimate about dining across from someone in a hotel room - the codes are different, the distance between dinner and what comes after is much shorter.
The City Itself - The Thrills No One Sees
What I love deeply about Geneva is that discretion is cultural. People don't look. Don't ask questions. An elegant woman who enters a grand hotel alone at 8pm and leaves at 2am - no one bats an eye. It is a city that respects private lives with an almost moral rigour. For what I do, it is ideal.
There are moments in this city that I particularly love. The Quai Wilson on summer evenings, when the lake is black and the hotel lights reflect in it - I have crossed that quay dozens of times after appointments, light, feet aching slightly from the heels, with that feeling of belonging exactly where I am. The Pâquis late at night, the neighbourhood where I live, with its mix of people and its particular energy - nothing like the well-heeled right bank, and that is precisely why I live there. It reminds me that I am several things at once.
The lift at the Beau-Rivage, too. Small, panelled in dark wood, slow. There is a client with whom I rode it one January evening - and in that lift, between the ground floor and the fifth, something happened that took me twenty minutes to recover from once inside the suite. Just a look. Just his hands placed on either side of my waist without quite touching me. The promise, sometimes, is better than the thing itself.
Geneva is a cold city for those who don't know where to look for warmth. I know where to look.
Sofia
Sofia, 27 — Based in Geneva, she fully embraces her life as a luxury escort and speaks about it openly.
Through her stories, she shares her beginnings, her experiences with an international clientele, the advantages of the job (luxury, freedom), but also the more complex realities. She writes in a simple, honest way about what truly happens behind the doors of Swiss hotels.
This text was originally written in French. It was then translated to be readable in your language.
If you would also like to share a life story or experience with us, feel free to contact us!