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

Community


About the Riviera's anglophone community, its national groups, clubs and associations, schools and churches, interests and sectors of activity. See "Profiles" for individual stories of Riviera Residents.


Mimosa ladies in a group

Mimosa Matters fundraising: past, present and future

Karen Hockney | Mar 16, 2018
Five years ago, Mimosa Matters started life as a conversation over coffee among a group of female expats who had all been touched by cancer and were keen to make a difference to the community they live in. Today, this association has raised almost a…
Formula 1 Ferrari

Opportunity to attend the French and Italian Grand Prix

Timothy Molyneux | Feb 22, 2018
We are working with several local clubs and associations with the intention to attend as a group two Grand Prix races in 2018: the French and Italian Grand Prix. You are welcome to attend both or just one of these races. Just indicate your…
Mimosa Ball Guests

Mimosa Mougins Ball 2017 in aid of cancer

Karen Hockney | Apr 05, 2017
When a group of expat residents decided to establish Mimosa Matters to help fight cancer on the Cote d’Azur, little did they realise just how dramatic an impact their association would have. Four years on, Mimosa has raised in excess of €140,000…
Riviera Hash House Harriers

Joining the Riviera Hash House Harriers

Melanie Gulliver | Aug 09, 2016
If, like me, you like to discover new places on the Côte d’Azur and meeting friendly multi-national (mostly English-speaking) people of all ages, then you should check out the Riviera Hash House Harriers. Founded in Kuala Lumpur in 1938, the…
Refugee Aid Cote d'Azur

Refugee Aid Côte d’Azur’s container drive for Syria

Riviera Reporter | Jun 21, 2016
When a local Facebook group started up in September 2015, no one would have guessed its imminent success. In collaboration with four schools, Les Trois Collines, Les Colibris, Marie Mater and Mougins International School, Refugee Aid Côte d’Azur…
Medieval Festival Fayence

The 4th Medieval Festival in Fayence

Riviera Reporter | Jun 15, 2016
Housed in a 18th-century gristmill (built next to a one-of-a-kind 13th-century horizontal mill), EcoMusée du Pays de Fayence is a non-profit association (loi 1901) that promotes local heritage and are organising on Saturday June 18th (from 11am to…
St Pauls Monaco Library

In the good books of the English Library at St Paul’s Monaco

Stefani “Spooky” Cooper | May 26, 2016
One of the best things in the world is to curl up somewhere comfortable and open a book. Kindles, tablets and all the other electronic paraphernalia that intrude upon our lives have their place (I’m not a total Luddite!), but books are special, more…
Cancer support group ladies

Expats fight against cancer with Cancer Support Group 06

Sarah Legon | May 17, 2016
You don’t need to go through it alone. As Sarah Legon explains, an English-speaking support group is here to help. Sadly, it seems cancer touches everyone in one way or another. I helped found the Cancer Support Group for English speakers while I…
Gay badge

How the gay community on the Riviera has grown

Jameson Farn | May 08, 2016
May 17th, 2016, is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. Riviera resident Jameson Farn talks about the local gay community and offers some LGBT friendly hangouts. There is something magical about the Côte d’Azur. Besides…
Bumble Bee Rally car with Alan OConnor

Drive of the Bumble Bee, a rally for charity

Riviera Reporter | Apr 23, 2016
The inaugural Bumble Bee Rally will leave Edinburgh’s Holyrood Palace on Sunday May 8th, 2016, with up to 24 motoring enthusiasts from the UK taking part in a 1,600 mile journey, across seven countries, taking in some of the highest mountain passes…
Ladies in the Mimosa Group

Mimosa Cocktail fundraiser in aid of cancer

Karen Hockney | Apr 16, 2016
The Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix are without a doubt two of the French Riviera’s glitziest events of the calendar year. And, for the first time, taking place on Friday May 27th, 2016 – just after the Festival’s Closing Ceremony and…
Father Peter Jackson

Father Peter Jackson: A year on at Holy Trinity Nice

Riviera Reporter | Dec 17, 2015
Father Peter Jackson, who was born in the UK, went to Oxford University and trained to be ordained at Theological College at St Stephen’s House in Oxford, arrived at Holy Trinity Nice in October 2014, a few months before the Charlie Hebdo massacre.…
Mougins School Harvest Festival

Mougins School celebrates the Harvest Festival

Riviera Reporter | Oct 09, 2015
On Friday 9th October, 2015, Mougins School celebrates the Harvest Festival and, as we have done for over twenty years, twenty-four students from the Primary School Choir entertained the residents of the senior citizen home at the Font de l’Orme in…
Mimosa runners team

Mimosa charity runners in Nice-Cannes Marathon in aid of cancer support

Karen Hockney | Oct 01, 2015
In the two years since the Mimosa Committee was set up, the charity has raised in excess of an astonishing €100,000 towards the fight against cancer in the Alpes Maritimes. On November 8th, 2015, their motto “Life, a race worth running for”, will be…
RNLI Kessock Lifeboat

Fishy supper in aid of French and British lifeboats

Frances Grace Thompson | Sep 05, 2015
According to the inscriptions in our Grace family bible, we are descended from the Victorian heroine Grace Darling, the Longstone lighthouse keeper’s daughter, famed for participating in the rescue of survivors from the shipwrecked Forfarshire in…
Sans Voix Paca Demonstration, Activists

Dolphin Day demonstrators in Nice

Elodie Peyrano | Aug 30, 2015
There are a lot of thing you can expect to see at Place Masséna: musicians, performers, a Christmas market. But on Saturday August 29th, 2015, people on hand witnessed another scene: five semi-naked people, with their bodies painted red, lay on a…
Hauk Team

The Incredible Hauk, a new app for Breaking News

Riviera Reporter | Jul 16, 2015
Join Hauk for an exclusive Reddit AMA on Wednesday July 22nd, 2015, at 11am EST to learn about their rapid Startup experience. Follow @Hauknews on Twitter and Facebook. Startup Weekend is a nonprofit organisation founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde. More…
Child CARE Monaco Ladies Rally

Ladies’ Rally Vintage Car charity event 2015, in aid of Child CARE Monaco

Riviera Reporter | Jun 11, 2015
The second edition of the Ladies’ Rally Vintage Car Charity Event takes place Sept 20th, 2015. Created by Martine Ackermann as a glamorous and entertaining women-only fundraiser, last year’s inaugural ride sold out in only one day with 70 ladies…
Masonic Eye

Freemasons built on tradition at Abbey Lodge

Riviera Reporter | Mar 24, 2015
The changes brought about by the progressive construction of a railway network across Europe in the 19th century have been the subject of many books, and at least one recent television programme. In 1864, four years after Nice became part of France…
Prey Veng Pupils

John Mann's mission: the Educating Cambodia charity

Riviera Reporter | Jan 10, 2015
In 2014 Mougins School has played a big part in education worlds away from the comforts of the South of France. The international school, celebrating its 50th anniversary, has raised awareness as well as significant sums for the charity Educating…
Monaco Air League

Monaco finds its wings with the Air League

Nancy Heslin | Sep 10, 2014
The view from Sir Stelios’s terrace in Monaco is shelves apart from Charing Cross Road, London, home to Foyle’s flagship bookshop. I am here to meet chairman Christopher Foyle, raconteur of all things, to discuss the newly-formed charity Monaco Wing…
Bike Repair

If it’s broke, fix it at the Repair Café

Riviera Reporter | Jun 23, 2014
These days French consumers aren’t just looking for the best value, they’re looking to keep their euros in their wallets. And so Fransiska Greenland and Jaime Arredondo have imported a simple idea from the Netherlands: to link DIY enthusiasts to…
Swedish Club

High Society: the new Swedish Club

Nick Kent | Mar 30, 2014
We visit the Swedes' new home A hidden hand flicks a switch and the Reporter’s limousine sweeps through the imposing gates into an elegant park in Cagnes-sur-Mer, coming to a halt at the base of a 10-metre flagpole topped by the blue and yellow of…
Jonathon Lippman

Keeping local beaches clean with Jonathon Lippman

Riviera Reporter | Mar 10, 2014
Beachy clean At the retirement party for Janet Ruiz (see issue 161), Jonathon Lippman, former American Consul in Geneva, approached the Reporter talking trash, literally. “I live near the beach and almost daily go down to swim in season, to walk or…
Yacht Women Who Dare To Bare Calendar

Stripmates! Antibes yachties cast off clothes for a good cause

Nathalie Giraud | Sep 07, 2013
All great ideas are born over food and friends. And so it was in February of this year when photographer Linda Alaniz was lunching in Antibes with gal pal Lisa Mancino and a mate of hers, Linda “Loopy” Gardhage, both of whom worked in the yachting…
Photo by Nick Danziger

Where passion is the only requirement for photography and writing

Riviera Reporter | Jul 21, 2013
Local photographer Jilly Bennett has been lucky enough to participate in a workshop in Monaco called "Telling Tales: The Art of Creating Stories in Images and Words" held by award-winning photojournalist, author and documentary filmmaker, Nick…
Nicolas Palthey - Nourrir Les Enfants Haiti

Nicolas Palthey - It runs in the family

Riviera Reporter | May 31, 2013
Charity begins at home. Nicolas Palthey is following in the steps of his sister Alexandra ... all the way to Haiti. In 2011, as part of a volunteer project at school, Alexandra chose to go to Haiti for three weeks and help put a roof on the Saint…
Peter and Shirley Massey

Can words help the bereaved and the dying?

Peter Massey | Apr 09, 2013
Peter Massey, a priest of the Church of Ireland, who has worked in the Var for some years, has much experience of talking to the dying and to those they leave behind. Peter and Shirley Massey run L’Oasis, a support group that meets on the second and…
Mougins School Red Nose Day

Red Nose Day at Mougins School

Mougins School | Mar 23, 2013
On Friday 15th March 2013, the campus of Mougins School was awash with the colour red. Most of the 520 students and staff were dressed in red and wore red noses to celebrate Red Nose Day, part of Comic Relief, which is a bi-annual nation-wide effort…
Kenyan Kids

Riviera Charity changes the lives of Kenyan KIds

Julie Hellon Cupples | Mar 10, 2013
I was really looking forward to getting away from January’s cold and snowy weather and arriving in Nairobi’s 32 degree heat. This trip was planned to coincide with the start of the new school year for our children and I couldn’t wait to see them,…
Riviera Hash House Harriers

Riviera Hash House Harriers: on and on for 25 years

Paul Stradling | Mar 04, 2013
The Riviera Hash House Harriers (RHHH) club is celebrating 25 years of running, walking and socialising on the Riviera, in March this year. The first run back in 1988 was attended by Mike Meade, Peter Johnson, Keith Meredith, Chris Griffiths,…
Steve Wright

ANZAC: a call to all nations

Steve Wright | Feb 27, 2013
A retired Royal Australian Navy (RAN) with ten years service between 1989-2000, I was a Quartermaster gunner with active service with United Nations Integrated Task Force (UNITAF), as a peacekeeper, Mogadishu City, Somalia 1993. On return to…
Don't miss out on the mateship!

Don’t miss out on the Australian mateship!

Riviera Reporter | Jan 15, 2013
In recent issues we’ve mentioned that we’ve been getting enquiries about an Australian Club. Well, for some time now there hasn’t been one. Quite recently, though, I met Sylvie Chanoni who’d like to relaunch a club for exiles from Oz. As the name…
Oxbridge

Lunching with the Oxbridge Set

Riviera Reporter | Jan 07, 2013
Fifteen out of the twenty-three members of the UK’s coalition cabinet are Oxbridge graduates, including David Cameron (Oxford) and Nick Clegg (Cambridge). For some on the Left, particularly, this indicates an unhealthy concentration of power in the…
Freemasonry

Freemasonry on the Riviera

Riviera Reporter | Jan 01, 2013
If you’re going to the temple tonight, dear, I’d better iron your apron The Brits have brought a lot to France: sports like golf, tennis and rugby ... and, a less familiar example, Freemasonry. According to the usual history, traders from across the…
Azur Photography Group

The Azur Photography Group

Mike Harper | Dec 26, 2012
Nowhere has the digital revolution made its impact more dramatically and irreversibly than in Photography. Everyone it seems is now a shutter click away from taking a stunning photograph and viewing the result on his or her pc within minutes. The…
KenyaKids1-600

What can Kenyan Kids get for 10 euros at Christmas?

Riviera Reporter | Oct 20, 2012
Life on the Riviera can, as we all know, be a bit expensive, not least at Christmas. Ask anyone what they're likely to spend over Christmas on friends and family and they'll likely raise their eyes and give a groan at the sheer cost of it all. Ask…
Pause to remember

Poppy Drive : Lest we forget

Riviera Reporter | Oct 14, 2012
Last year saw the 90th anniversary of the Royal British Legion, which since just after the First World War has been caring for the welfare of British servicemen, active and retired, and of their families. Needless to say, with the Afghanistan…
Default Image

Baked Bean Barney : a Riviera resident like no other...

Riviera Reporter | Sep 16, 2012
Baked bean Barney gets life for killing mother. 20 years ago in the Riviera Reporter (extract) Julian Ashley Cox, aka “baked bean Barney”, former owner-manager of the Ashley’s of England food store in Antibes, has been jailed for life at Winchester…
Quiz Night

Quiz nights on the Riviera for a community

Carolyn Armour | Feb 20, 2012
Mike Preston's Quiz Nights are becoming a Riviera Institution. Carolyn Armour tells us more... Such events can really help to bring people of the community together. Whether they be locally born youths or adults, expatriate families or singles,…
The AVF

The AVF Association

Arthur Moore | Jan 07, 2012
If you drive into many towns in our region you will see a sign for AVF - Accueils des Villes Francaises - and you may have wondered what this sign and these initials could mean for you? AVF is, in fact, a French national organisation with some…
Newspaper

Commemorating the Allied victory of 8 May 1945

Michael Healy | Jan 07, 2012
A public holiday in France, but not just to take an extended long weekend. No, it is to commemorate the Allied victory ending the 2nd World War in Europe, and falls every 8th May, Anniversary of VE-Day in 1945 marking the capitulation of Nazi…
Girl Guides

The Guides are here – can the Scouts be far behind

Riviera Reporter | Jan 07, 2012
A while back we got an enquiry about scouting. Baden-Powellism never really caught on here in a big way and until not long ago, even in the English-speaking world, the movement has been in decline: modern boys weren’t too keen on funny hats and…

Irish Club: Well, tink about it

Riviera Reporter | Jan 07, 2012
Over the years this column has received enquiries about an Irish Club on the Coast. When we started there was such made up of a group of posh French presided over by Pierre Joannon, the seemingly eternal Honorary Consul here. Anyway, the club didn't…
Cemetry

Save the Anglo Cemetery in Nice

Ann Kelly | Jan 07, 2012
As part of our activities - study of writers who have lived on the Riviera - I was anxious to locate Frank Harris' grave in the former Anglo-American cemetery (now known as Cimetière St Marguerite). When I visited the graveyard in November, I was…

UNICEF on the Riviera

Riviera Reporter | Jan 07, 2012
The Sophia Antipolis Committee for UNICEF is looking for volunteers - both regular and occasional - to fill the positions of branch manager, sales coordinator and contacts in schools and businesses. Motivated people are needed - especially around…
Simon Taylor

The Brit's new man in Marseille - Simon Taylor

Patrick Middleton | Jan 07, 2012
Patrick Middleton meets Simon Taylor, British Consul-General “Already!” some might say. Surely we welcomed a new consul in these pages only a short time ago. Indeed we did. That was Hugh Hunter, an interesting man, former London firefighter and New…
Fast food

What the Swedes like and don't like about the Riviera

Riviera Reporter | Jan 07, 2012
In our occasional series about different national communities on the Coast, Patrick Middleton meets the Swedes. They seem to like living here ... but they've got some reservations "A lot of Swedes dream of coming here," said Sweden's Consul in Nice,…
Anglophones

How many Anglophones live on the Riviera?

Mike Meade | Oct 24, 2011
Just how many English speakers live on the Riviera. It figures! When veteran economic journalist Jean-Pierre Largillet called me in October about a piece he was doing for Nice-Matin on the Riviera’s resident foreign communities he immediately got on…
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