Meet the Pebbles Team–Committed to Making Your Riviera Holiday Perfect!

Matthew Roberts – Founder of Nice Pebbles in 2006, Matt's former career as a micro-biologist in the UK is now a distant bad dream. Four years of Riviera living means he now knows how to handle a speed boat and knows all the right restaurants to visit. His passion is food and wine. These days Matt is to be found in our office tree house under a mountain of paperwork and helping with our the sale of investment property in Nice. He also works on our on-line booking system and how we can improve our service to our Guests as well as balancing the books, which often means pulling in the reins of Gayle’s Next Big Plan.
matt@rivierapebbles.com

Gayle Roberts – Gayle relocated to Nice in 2006 with Matthew to set up Nice Pebbles. Formerly a solicitor in the UK, Gayle loves being away from office life. Gayle takes responsibility for the running of the business and works to improve our service to our guests. When it became clear that there was a high demand for a more personal and boutique approach to Nice holiday apartment rentals, she persuaded Matt to take Pebbles further and launch Riviera Pebbles in 2007. Gayle holds the carte professionelle, carte 11284 from the Préfecture des Alpes Maritimes.
gayle@rivierapebbles.com

Keely Lise Barrett A few years on from completing her degree at Edinburgh University in French and French Literature, Keely settled in Nice. Prior to settling here, she worked as a teaching assistant in a secondary school in Avignon and then as an au pair in Antibes before returning to Edinburgh to complete here studies. She has spent the last 12 months teaching English to French students at the University of Nice and we were delighted when she joined us in the spring of 2009. Keely is also from Manchester, UK. She is a champion swimmer and spent most of her teenage years with early morning training swims and competing at a high level.
keely@rivierapebbles.com

Veronica Sexton joined the office team in 2010 and most of our guests will have received emails or spoken to Roni on the phone. Originally from Ireland with an impressive background in sales management and training, Roni moved to France with her boyfriend when he landed a job in Monaco. She didn’t need much persuading to leave Dublin behind. She handles our new enquiries and helps our guests choose the right apartment. Roni has travelled extensively and loves exploring new places and often does so by cycling around Nice and nearby towns.

Malena Richard – Living most of her life in Detroit and Chicago, Malena moved to France in March 2003 after having a coup de foudre (falling head over heels) with a Frenchman. She packed up her life and moved to Nice, married, and started a small family of three. Since she arrived in France, she worked in the management sector of luxury hospitality business such as world-renowned private dining clubs, hotels, and private estate functions. Running haphazardly into Matthew and Gayle one evening at a restaurant proved to be fate as nearly three years later Malena joined the Riviera Pebbles team. Malena now manages 25 holiday apartments in Central Nice concentrating mainly on the Musiciens, Gambetta, Libération and Etoile areas. She is also our area manager for our Cannes and Antibes holiday apartments and committed to growing this area for Pebbles in 2010.
malena@rivierapebbles.com

Bruno Defforge is French and after 20 years in the United States, he returned to his roots, bringing with him his American wife who no doubt fell in love with his bubbly personality. Prior to joining Nice Pebbles, Bruno had his own U.S. service-orientated business. He loves the French Riviera and in his spare time takes off exploring on his scooter. He is keen to share his passion with the French Riviera with our guests.
bruno@rivierapebbles.com

Jane Fryer is English, and prior to moving to Nice, worked in London for 25 years as an architectural assistant and antiques dealer. Although she loved London, she craved sun, sea, mountains and the good life. She got all that she could want when she moved into an apartment in Nice in 2005 and has never looked back. As you might expect from her background, she loves property on the French Riviera and enjoys helping guests appreciate their holiday apartment in Nice. When Jane is not working, she loves walking in the mountains with her partner, Siamak, who is also part of the Pebbles team.
jane@rivierapebbles.com

Roxana Dumitriu, originally from Romania, speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish. After completing her degree in Political Sciences, she wanted to experience life in another country and found herself in Nice and has never looked back. Arriving in 2007, Roxanna has worked as an au pair, a chef’s assistant, and for another holiday rental company before joining us in 2010. She loves to meet new people and looks forward to welcoming you to your Nice apartment in the Old Town of Nice and passing on her tips for great restaurants and things to do whilst visiting us.
roxana@rivierapebbles.com

Sofie Astrom Originally from Sweden, Sofie was lured by an Englishman to the French Riviera. A recent newlywed to the same Englishman, Sofie and Neil have made Cannes their home for the last three years. Sofie manages all our holiday rental apartments in Cannes, Golfe-Juan and Juan-les-Pins. When not working, Sofie loves to cook - and we certainly love to sample what she rustles up.
sofie@rivierapebbles.com

Geraldine Hogg joined us in early 2010 after arriving in Nice a year earlier. Like many of us, she came to Nice on holiday and fell in love with the city. A sales agent’s dream, before her holiday was over Geraldine had bought her own Nice apartment although she is not new to property as she was an estate agent in the South of England for over 10 years. Prior to her move to Nice she ran her own tea and coffee shop complete with English scones. As you might expect, Geraldine loves meeting people and chatting to them and is looking forward to meeting our guests for holiday apartments in Nice in the Carre d'Or area.
geraldine@rivierapebbles.com

Peter Brooke has more than just a friendly butter-wouldn’t-melt face on offer. He’s one of the most astute guys we know and has our heads spinning with possibilities every time we have chance to share a social drink. Sadly, this is not as often as we’d like since he too has a young family at home. He has given us sound financial advice from as early as 2006 and we’re delighted to offer his services as our Pebbles financial adviser to our clients. We know our clients will be in safe hands with Peter.

Philip Cecchettini is our web master and is responsible for our websites. Based in California, it was a chance meeting in the restaurant La Mérenda when both Phil and his wife and Gayle and Matthew were on a four- day trip to Nice and were sitting at adjoining tables. There was chemistry and the start of a beautiful friendship. A year later Gayle and Matthew contacted Phil and asked him to help them build a new concept of holiday apartment rentals in Nice.

Sheila Langer is responsible for all of our artwork both on the websites and in our publications and marketing products. Sheila is also based in California but spent several years in France and so is called upon to speak her fluent French to our suppliers from time to time. Sheila is also responsible for our guide to Nice which all guests receive when staying in one of our holiday rental apartments in Nice, Cannes or Antibes.

Charles Shepley – Our UK based director, and a tax specialist at one of the leading firms of accountants, Charlie is responsible for our strategic planning, budgeting and UK based marketing.

Our Owners – We choose our holiday rental owners carefully. All of them are pro-active, pleasant to deal with and responsive to any problems which occur in the holiday apartments we offer to our guests. We all appreciate how they are continually open to suggestions by way of improvements. Without them there would be no Nice Pebbles or Riviera Pebbles and we wouldn’t be able to offer you the service we strive to give our Guests.