connaître being used for having experience with something

Question

In a search to demystify the difference between savoir and connaître, I stumbled upon an article earlier that suggested something along the lines of "use connaître when you've had prior experience with something" with one of the examples being "vous connaissez [name of place]?" meaning have you been to [name of place]? instead of asking whether the person is aware of the existence of said place. The second example was "Je connais Brad Pitt"; a statement that implies that one has met Brad Pitt before rather than plainly saying that they know of the existence of him. Since this lesson hasn't mentioned anything regarding what I've said above, can anyone enlighten me on this matter?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Anaïs,
- It is correct to say "vous connaissez [Paris] ?" to express that you have a prior experience with a place. However, it is a very precise context where you would already be talking about a trip/holidays or you have a current/prior experience of the place (i.e. lived/living - worked/working - studied/studying there). Also, if you do not have a prior experience with a place, you would still use "connaître" and you would never say "vous savez [Paris] ?"
With "je connais Brad Pit", if you do not know him personally, you would still use "connaître" and not "savoir". Therefore, it works for both: knowing someone personally and being aware of a person's existence.
However, the only time you would use "savoir" is with this structure: 
Je sais qui est Brad Pit = I know who is Brad Pit
So, it is better to follow the grammar explanation as per Kwiziq's lesson:
- "Connaître is followed by a noun, which can be a person, place, thing, or a fact"
- "Savoir is usually used with a clause introduced by words like que, qui, quand, où, combien, ce que, ce qui, etc." and "Savoir can also be followed by an infinitive to express how to do [something]"
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !