News Update - Shopping from knowitall.ch

: Published: 11 December 2023

arielpierre2022

Ariel Pierre Haemmerlé with the newly published 2nd edition

Back in 2021 we wrote an article about Ariel Pierre Haemmerlé at this link, the tour guide with a big personality. Last year, we wrote the article at this link about his 5th book: Genève, les dates les plus importantes de son histoire. Can you believe he sold out of all his copies in 3 weeks? He has updated the book and the new, second edtiion is now out in time for the perfect Christmas present.

We met up with him to get our hands on a copy. The new edition has more dates, more details, and has enough information about Geneva to make you appreciate the history of this city even more. Ariel Pierre told us, "I don't think it will ever cover all the dates. I wanted to just keep it to the most important ones; once the first edition was out, I realized that I should have put other important events in the Geneva history. Now I have added them, and the 2ed edition is out, I think: oh, I could have added this or that... my mind is swimming with possibilities. But I am very happy with the result."

Do you know what these dates represent?

121 AC
1478
1754
1818
2023

If none of them ring a bell, read to bottom for the answers.

Organized very simply by dates, with a brief explanation of what each date means to Geneva, you will learn many, many fundamental milestones in this city's evolution.

The book will be available to purchase from all bookshops this week. This might be the Christmas present you might have been looking for!

This tour guide knows how to catch your attention and keep it. If you are interested in inviting him to an event to talk about Geneva, please contact him. He will not disappoint your audience.

: Published: 30 November 2023

iCHE 023

“La Femme du général” is Michel Chevallier’s second novel, after “Rome est une femme”, a crime story, which he published in 2020, when Covid gave us the luxury of time to read. Now that most of us are back in the office, his new book makes for another timely reading in that it relates precisely to office life.

Michel, a true fourth-generation Genevan, drew from two sources to write his new book. One is the true story of Ulrich Wille, who was Swiss army general in WWI and got this position thanks to his dirty tricks and unscrupulous behavior, the other is Michel’s own experience of violence on the workplace. He said he needed understanding what goes through the mind of abusive supervisors, the kind of hyper narcissistic type we tend to see more and more nowadays up the hierarchical ladder.

His challenge was to find a storytelling that would make such an exploration attractive. His answer was to come up with the story of an officer who yearns to become a general in a country that, similarly to Switzerland, only elects one when a war is looming. So, the “general”, as the character is named all through the novel, jubilates to see a war coming. He sends his own son to the border, to show his deep commitment to the common good and his alleged equal treatment of all young men, thus using the flesh of his own flesh to promote his ambitions.

After he scared away all officers who could pretend to be elected, he his chosen to become the general, but the world begins undoing around him, without him noticing. The chaplain of his wife starts courting her, the prisoner of war he gave his wife as aide-de-camp promotes communism in the household and the most revered hermit in the country makes a prediction that he misunderstands and that leads him to wrong decisions.

: Published: 27 November 2023

grondereseries

When we found out that local author, Kathryn Adams, was publishing her 4th book, we thought this would be the perfect stocking stuffer (for yourself as well)! This is a very short Christmas mystery novelette (60 pages), "just a bit of fun for Christmas", Kathryn explains.

Tell us how many in the series and how you were inspired to write this 4th edition.
This is the fourth book in The Grondère Series. It's not a full-length novel, it's a novelette. I have always loved the tradition of Christmas mysteries, be they ghost or crime stories, and I wanted to have a go at the genre. So what better than a ski ghost story, there simply aren't enough of them out there.

Will readers need to have read all 3 beforehand to understand the plot?
Absolutely not. All my books are designed to be read independently of the others and this one, in particular, is a short tale that can be read without any knowledge of the previous editions. I have used my existing characters and location because I wanted to keep my alpine setting.

: Published: 15 November 2023

Van Cleef Arpels Emblematic High Jewelry Creations

Van Cleef & Arpels collection
Left: Bouquet clip, 1939. Yellow gold, blue, yellow and pink sapphires, rubies.

The Van Cleef & Arpels boutique in Geneva welcomes the exhibition "Emblematic High Jewelry Creations" from November 23rd to December 30th, 2023. Visitors can discover nearly sixteen historic pieces from the Maison's patrimonial collections.

The exhibition is free and accessible upon reservation. To prepare your venue, follow this link.

The first Geneva boutique, opened in 1960, soon attracted a clientele seduced by the Maison's savoir-faire. In 2013, the exhibition "Van Cleef & Arpels: 50 years of history in Geneva" celebrated the Maison's relationship with Switzerland. Almost 10 years after the opening of this exhibition, the High Jewelry creations are once again displayed in the historical boutique.

: Published: 26 June 2023

PTTfoodwaste

Press release from Swiss Post

Foodstuffs that deviate from the norm often end up in the bin. Even though they may not live up to our ideals of beauty, they are of course equally palatable. This stamp takes a stand against food waste. Who’s to say they’re perfect? And what does normal even actually mean? For food, these questions are covered by strict standards. Anything deviating from these standards often doesn’t even make it to sale. Food waste – the squandering of foodstuffs – happens at various stages of the product chain, such as in shops, during processing and in private households.

This isn’t just a pity in terms of resources expended for no reason, it’s also painful on the wallet: according to WWF figures, the average Swiss household throws away more than 600 francs’ worth of food every year. The word “waste” is crossed out on the stamp to make a statement against this form of waste. The three subjects of the photo show that the unshapely can also be visually appealing. After all, is it not precisely their unconventional forms that make them eye-catching? The three mountain potatoes come from an organic farm in the Albula Valley, whose special varieties are liked even by top restaurateurs, delighting many a palate.