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TO GENEVA, for the glitzy opening party for Sir Rocco Forte’s newest hotel, Le Richemond. This grand hotel overlooking Lake Geneva used to be the Claridge’s of the city but the place went to seed before Forte snapped it up.

TO GENEVA, for the glitzy opening party for Sir Rocco Forte’s newest hotel, Le Richemond. This grand hotel overlooking Lake Geneva used to be the Claridge’s of the city but the place went to seed before Forte snapped it up.

Normally, Forte has his sister Olga Polizzi (married to William Shawcross) decorate his hotels but this time he has splashed out on hiring the legendary (legendarily expensive, that is) John Stefanidis to renovate the hotel.

Forte hopes to make it the preferred address for the increasing number of London-based hedge fund managers, private equity boys and multi-family offices (Stanhope Capital, for one, run by Daniel Pinto and Julien Sevaux, are thinking of opening up a new office) that I keep hearing are thinking of expanding their operations to include a view of Lake Geneva.

For a city – population around 185,000 – that normally has all the social appeal of Palm Springs, the party was a glamorous affair; the closest for the city’s bejewelled demimonde to a three-line social whip.

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