Belgian-French couple opens bakery storefront in Sydney, N.S.

There was hardly a seat to be found at the grand opening of a new bakery storefront in downtown Sydney, N.S., on Wednesday.

"It's pretty busy outside, so it's nice,” said Elodie Nasone, who owns and operates La Bel-France bakery along with Bart Pennewaert.

Nasone is originally from France and Pennewaert is from Belgium. The couple combined the names of their two home countries to create the name, La Bel-France. 

Getting to Cape Breton was quite the global adventure. The couple met in Australia, then moved to New Zealand. They then flew to Canada, where they rented a car and traveled the country.

"(We) found a job on the Cabot Trail and then moved back here after we went back to Europe,” explained Nasone.

But then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and they got laid off. The pair decided to come to Sydney and share some of the food they know back home.

"So we started during COVID, actually,” said Nasone. “From the very bottom, just doing markets. Renting out a kitchen and then selling at the markets."

"We did a survey to the community and kind of asked them what types of businesses they would like to see and where they would shop most frequently if they were in our downtown, and 'bakery' came at the very top of the list,” said Michelle Wilson, CEO of the Sydney Downtown Development Association.

Not only does having a bakery fill a hole in the downtown, but the timing for the new storefront location looks pretty good.

"With extra cruise passengers coming in, our redevelopment of our main street, NSCC coming -- lots of great things happening,” said Wilson.

"I won't say that I'll be living here forever, but hopefully the bakery will,” said Nasone. “We'll see."

For now, the hope for the couple is quite simply for sweet success.

For the latest Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.