Riviera Reporter
Riviera Reporter
THE FRENCH RIVIERA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWS MAGAZINE
THE FRENCH RIVIERA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWS MAGAZINE

Profiles of Residents


Some Riviera residents and their stories.


John Hefford

John Hefford: Obituary

Riviera Reporter | Jul 09, 2016
Author John Hefford, who wove his fiction around modern French history and the contrast of French and British personalities, was born and educated in England but he lived most of his life in Nice and Paris. Speaking to the Reporter in 2012,
John Collingwood

John Collingwood: Obituary

Selwyn Glick | Jun 26, 2016
Born in 1925, John Collingwood was a man of many layers. He was a British sailor with a distinguished war record, recently acknowledged by the French state with the award of Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur for his part in the minesweeping of the…
Avery Glize-Kane

Avery Glize-Kane: Obituary

Burton Gintell | Feb 09, 2016
“Class, grace and passion ... all rolled into one” The Anglophone community of the Riviera has lost one of its brightest stars. Avery Glize-Kane passed away on January 8th, 2016, at the age of 76, after a long fight against cancer. Avery was such a…
Roy Cox

Remembering Roy Cox

Mike Meade | Dec 10, 2015
Roy Cox was born in Burton-on-Trent in the British Midlands. He went to Derby Art College and began his lifelong passion for photography. It was at a party at the British Embassy in Budapest where Roy first set eyes on his future wife, Stella.…
Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell: Paradise after Wallander

Nancy Heslin | Oct 06, 2015
Henning Mankell died age 67 on Monday October 5th, 2015, from cancer. The Inspector Wallander creator had a home in old Antibes. We last met in May 2013, at his local haunt, Le Clémenceau. Henning Mankell sits across from me at Le Clemenceau in Old…
Ruby Soames

Ruby Soames: “I’m not a heart surgeon”

PJ Heslin | Jun 25, 2014
Even though I have now lived here for four years, I know that I am still an American visiting France, and not a fully integrated expat. I feel like my French should be better and although I love living here, I can become frustrated with the…
Chris Vos

Where in the world was Chris Vos?

Riviera Reporter | May 08, 2014
In 1983, Anne Nijland, 25, met Chris Vos in Israel where they were both working as volunteers. The following year Anne convinced Chris, a Brit six years her senior who had been travelling across Europe, to go back to the Netherlands with her. They…
Mitch Waite Vence Panorama

Mitch Waite: The Reporter’s tribute to an artist who brought the Riviera to life

Nick Kent | Feb 13, 2014
Missing Mitch His job was lighting up other people’s lives and letting them see the world in a new and vibrant way. The great talent that was Mitch Waite is no longer around to share his vision with us, his life cruelly snuffed out at 56, just as…
Paula Radciffe

Paula Radcliffe: A world champion finds peace and sport in Monaco

Nancy Heslin | Jan 22, 2014
Paula on the run When I read that Paula Radcliffe, the women’s world record holder for marathon for the past ten years, was the marraine (“godmother”) of the Nice-Cannes Marathon in November 2013, I jumped at the chance for an interview, thinking…
Breton Nude by William Scott

William Scott - Artist

Pippa Jane Wieglos | Dec 04, 2013
As the William Scott Foundation celebrates the close of its centenary year, the Riviera Reporter unearths a work by William Scott painted in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1939 whilst living in the South of France between 1938-39. The painting of William Scott's…
School of Happiness

Billur Gungoren and the School of Happiness

Nick Kent | Nov 22, 2013
Learning by heart. Teach don't preach, says the woman with the key to happiness. It was a Road to Damascus moment in the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Billur Gungoren, a woman at a mid-life crossroads, had used a disguise to avoid being sent to the back…
Charles Glass

Charles Glass - Writer and journalist

PJ Heslin | Jun 04, 2013
Every man has two countries ... or three if you're Charles Glass Charles Glass has had a career that reads like a movie script – war correspondent, interviewing hijackers and being kidnapped. These days the 62-year-old spends his time writing…
Lisa and Johann Pepin

Lisa and Johann Pepin - Les Pastras

PJ Heslin | May 29, 2013
When Lisa Pepin first met her husband Johann in Madison, Wisconsin at a mutual friend’s party she describes it as a coup de foudre. He was working on a Master’s degree and she was working at an ad agency. Three weeks after meeting, Johann had to…
Dr Louise Pinet

Louise Pinet - Vet

Patrick Middleton | Mar 22, 2013
Dr Pinet, pictured with her cat Pinceau, has lived on the Riviera for more than 20 yearsLouise Pinet is Canadian and equally at home in French or English. Must be Québécoise, you might assume. “Not at all,” she says firmly. “I’m a…
Richard West

Richard West and Susanne Batstone - Old and younger in Menton

Patrick Middleton | Mar 20, 2013
Patrick Middleton talks to two Brits living in the city who were born half a century apart Richard West came on the scene in London in 1920. That’s two years before the birth of BBC radio and sixteen years before the launch of television at…
Peter Watts

Peter Watts - Grimaud Parish Priest

Patrick Middleton | Feb 08, 2013
In the first of a new series featuring expats doing work normally carried out by native French, Patrick Middleton talks to Father Peter Watts, a Welshman and the Parish Priest of Grimaud in the Var As a young boy growing up in Pembrokeshire Peter…
Robert Adelson

Robert Adelson - Museum curator

Patrick Middleton | Aug 29, 2012
On this occasion we meet Robert Adelson, curator of Nice’s museum of historical musical instruments The young Robert Adelson could hardly avoid getting involved with music. “My mother was a concert pianist and the house was full of music. I’ve one…
William Aldridge

William Aldridge - The man who allows Inspector Wallander to speak English

Patrick Middleton | Aug 25, 2012
Since it launched on BBC, the series about Kurt Wallander, a police officer based in the small town of Ystad, just outside of Malmo in southern Sweden, has edged into near-cult status. Largely this is explained by its striking contrast with most…
Laurent Lenne

Laurent Lenne - A thoroughly modern priest

Riviera Reporter | Jul 20, 2012
We’re talking about Laurent Lenne, French and an ordained Anglican priest (actually, for the US Episcopalian diocese in Europe) working in Seyne-sur-Mer. At first sight Fr Laurent seems to be just one more of those splendid eccentrics so familiar in…
Simon Taylor

Simon Taylor - British Consul in Marseille

Patrick Middleton | Jul 05, 2012
Simon Taylor, British Consul for a large chunk of France, including our own area, has been talking once again to Patrick Middleton When Simon Taylor arrived in the region, just over five years ago, I was, he recalled, the first journalist he talked…
Lori Armstrong

Lori Armstrong - A Canadian on the Coast

Nancy Heslin | May 26, 2012
Lori Armstrong left Canada over a decade ago with no set plan. She has earned her way up to director at one of the most distinguished hotels in the world. “I like Europe because of the different cultures within hand’s reach. Even in France, each…
Daniel Benchimol

Daniel Benchimol - Top doctor

Patrick Middleton | May 16, 2012
Most anglophones living here are impressed by French doctors but the media make it clear that a lot of those men and women in white coats aren’t happy. To find out more meet Daniel Benchimol, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Nice. Professor Daniel…
Pierre Gruneberg

Pierre Gruneberg - Swimming instructor

Riviera Reporter | Mar 25, 2012
While praise for the new pool safety legislation in France is merited, the issue of safety in the water extends beyond simply safeguarding your pool. Learning how to swim properly or further developing the skills you acquired from childhood can be a…
Stuart Barham

Stuart Barham - Pianist

Riviera Reporter | Jan 09, 2012
In another of this series on artists, performers and writers living in the area Patrick Middleton hears from conductor, organist and pianist Stuart Barham Stuart Barham has happy memories of his early childhood growing up in a Berkshire village but…
Book cover

Ted Jones - Author

Riviera Reporter | Jan 09, 2012
In another of our series about English-speaking artists, musicians and writers living locally Patrick Middleton hears from author Ted Jones There are writers who like to tell you of their early start as wordsmiths, creating a family newspaper at…
Stephen Roche

Stephen Roche - Cyclist

Riviera Reporter | Jan 09, 2012
When Stephen Roche was growing up in Dublin cars were much more rare than in recent times and his parents cycled everywhere. “So I wanted a bike and when I got it I just loved riding it.” In fact he showed a natural talent for handling two wheels…
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Linda Hough - Life coach

Riviera Reporter | Jan 09, 2012
Linda Hough believes she could tell you how to lead a happier and more satisfying life. And be paid for doing so. She explains to Patrick Middleton “People sometimes smile when I say I come from California and I’m a life coach. They imagine that…
Nicky Hooper

Nicky Hooper - Hairdresser

Riviera Reporter | Jan 09, 2012
Nicky Hooper was recently chosen Business Person of the Year by the British Chamber of Commerce. She talked to Patrick Middleton An expat, as some have learned to their cost, can never be sure of leaving the past behind and forgotten. Back in 1978…
Lucy Howard

Lucy Howard - Antibes's Advocate

Cressida van Zyl-Pithey | Jan 09, 2012
"I've found my perfect place..." With that conviction Brit Lucy Howard is well qualified to spend her working life promoting her adopted home town of Antibes. She's been talking to Cressida van Zyl-Pithey Growing up in Wokingham, Berkshire, a small…
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Perry Spitz - Behind the Goal

Jill Penton-Browne | Jan 09, 2012
Jill Penton-Browne meets a woman who makes a rather special contribution to the training of Monaco's young footballers If you're born and spend your early years in Africa, they say, something gets into your blood and you feel you never really belong…
Newborn baby

Vivienne Rion - Midwife

Jill Penton-Browne | Jan 09, 2012
“It was marvellous to have her there.” You're about to have a baby, you're a long way from your own country, your French seems to be going to pieces, you're feeling very anxious and then Vivienne Rion, a British midwife working in the Var, comes on…

Hilary Spronken brings up her handicapped daughter

Jill Penton-Browne | Jan 09, 2012
Jill Penton-Browne talks once again to Hilary Spronken about the frustrations—and satisfactions —of raising her handicapped daughter in France. Cassandra: “A small person like any child of her age” “Sometimes,” Hilary Spronken tells me, with a wry…

Dianne Brothwell - Running on the spot

Jill Penton-Browne | Jan 09, 2012
Jill Penton-Browne begins a new series of our sampling of the English-speaking community with an Englishwoman who has been closely involved for a quarter of a century with one of the region's top sporting events Ask Dianne Brothwell why she came…
Wayne Barrett

Wayne Barrett's World

Mike Meade | Jan 09, 2012
About ten years ago a slightly cocky young man asked me about distributing the Reporter in his burger bar. He was full of plans. Wayne Barrett was going to make a mark, change the image of pubs on the Riviera, create a venue that would be talked…
Marc Wolff

Marc Wolff - Helicopter pilot

Riviera Reporter | Jan 09, 2012
Danger man. Marc Wolff’s life has had many hairy moments – from extracting the wounded in Vietnam under heavy fire to injecting thrills into the James Bond movies. I’ve often noticed that people who’ve had successful and interesting careers readily…
Christian Nielsen

Christian Nielsen and Jaren Lamb - A tale of two expats in Tourrettes

Riviera Reporter | Jan 09, 2012
Christian: Living the Dream When people use "dream" to describe their life on the Riviera I cringe a little. "But there's really no other way to put it", Christian Nielsen told me over lunch at his hotel and restaurant at the western end of town.…

Walter Raymond - Chaplain, St Paul’s Anglican Church, Monaco

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
Walter Raymond recently took over as chaplain at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Monaco. He talked to Patrick Middleton Walter Raymond was born and raised in Sacramento, the state capital of California. “As a boy I never thought I’d leave. I loved the…
Colonel Ronald Challoner

Colonel Ronald Challoner, OBE: Honorary Consul in Nice

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
Patrick Middleton recalls “a man of subtle intelligence and complex character” Colonel Ronald Challoner, who died not long before Christmas a few days off his 90th birthday, will be recalled by many for his impressive physical appearance: tall,…
airplane

Kathie Hallett - Air traffic controller

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
Your aircraft comes to a halt, that light is switched off, you unfasten your seatbelt and maybe offer a silent word of thanks to the pilots. But you should also remember the air traffic controllers like Kathie Hallett who recently welcomed Patrick…
football

Kate Palthey - Football mum

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
Kate Palthey, an MBA from Boston... and footballeuse, talks to Patrick Middleton Like so many of us Kate Palthey came to France with no intention of staying and now 11 years later doesn’t expect to leave. “To give you my background briefly, I’m…
Painting

Alfred Head - Local Artist

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
Patrick Middleton meets a local artist who after a long lifetime in Islington delights in painting Nice. “I’m north London through and through,” says Alfred Head. “Born in Holloway, lived and worked for years in Islington.” What did he do? “I was an…
Ted Dexter

Ted Dexter - English captain and Riviera resident

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
Cricket, it's not all fun... So says former Former England Cricket Captain Ted Dexter, recently settled in Nice. He talked to Patrick Middleton. "English to the core" is the kind of thing you might well say of Edward Ralph Dexter, both in respect of…
Nigel Gittins

Nigel Gittins - Veterinary surgeon

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
Ask a Brit where he went to school and, usually, you learn something about his wider background. Nigel Gittins’ education was split between Summerhill and Dartington Hall, two establishments once famed for their blend of moral and pedagogic anarchy.…
Duncan Larkin

Duncan Larkin - The man with a chuckle in his voice

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
Remembering Duncan Larkin “I grew up slowly,” Duncan Larkin admitted to me a couple of years ago. I had mentioned to him some rather sticky moments during his spells at Radio Aire in Leeds and at World Radio Geneva. He delivered this verdict on his…

Nicholas Vyvyan - Gendarme

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
“CIRCULEZ, CIRCULEZ… IL N’Y A RIEN À VOIR!” And if you don’t understand that, he’ll say it again in English as good — if not better — than yours. Patrick Middleton talked to gendarme adjoint Nicholas Vyvyan. A British naval officer, on an official…

Former Riviera Radio presenter convicted in Wales

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
On any radio station, it's Breakfast presenters who have the greatest impact on the audience. We're quite often asked for news of Rob's predecessors - Dave Windsor, Duncan Larkin and Alan West. We wrote about the last-named not so long ago after he…

John and Julie Sweet - First France, then South Africa

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
The Sweet Life According to Irish broadcaster Terry Wogan, most of what's said on the radio has about as much impact as "a duck farting in thunder". And I'd say that's also true of most of what's written in magazines and newspapers. But there are…

Robert Ryan - The Man at Morrisons

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
CALLED TO THE BAR Robert Ryan runs one of our most popular Irish pubs, Morrison’s in Cannes. Patrick Middleton called in recently for a drop of Bushmills and some talk When a man tells me he comes from Limerick I have to ask him how he feels about…

Jon Kershaw - Marineland's Dolphin Man

Patrick Middleton | Jan 09, 2012
THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN … is every day for Jon Kershaw of Marineland in Antibes. He talked to Patrick Middleton. There are people who can put their finger on some moment of their early lives when their whole future course was decided. That’s the case…
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