Event founder Solveig Coulon-Legay is excited to be expanding Le Marché into Canberra. Photo: Le Marché markets.
Popular Sydney market Le Marché is heading interstate for the first time, and Canberra is the only stop on the itinerary with a one-day-only market aptly named Paris to Canberra.
Rolling into Thoroughbred Park on 30 August, the vibrant outdoor market promises to recreate the experience of wandering through a neighbourhood market in France.
The event’s founder, Solveig Coulon-Legay, is the real deal, telling Region in her lyrical French accent, “It’s not just a market where you come, do your shopping and leave; people come and spend the morning. It’s a destination!”
The market, which now operates in three locations across Sydney and sees 120,000 visitors a year, had more humble beginnings than its current success would imply.
“It was launched during COVID, in between lockdowns, as a tiny little market on a carpark,” Solveig says, explaining that many of the original stallholders that began with them six years ago are still involved today.”
Bruno Paressant and Bronwyn Thomson will be attending Le Marché in their roaming crêpe van, Le Petit Breton Crêpes. Photo: Martin Conway.
Now, boasting more than 65 pop-up shops and artisans, Solveig is keen to not only bring along their regular stallholders but also to get Canberran-based French businesses involved, with a number of them already signed on to attend.
“For the Canberra event, around 95 per cent of the Sydney stallholders will make the trip with us, and they will be joined by as many local French businesses as we can attract. All of the bakers will be from Canberra. There will be Le Petit Breton Crêpes, and we’re working with the Alliance Française Canberra.”
Canberra’s celebrity chef, Clément Chauvin from Les Bistronomes, will be attending the markets with copies of his award-winning cookbook, Bistronomie. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
With a keen eye for the Canberra restaurant scene, the Le Marché team has also secured Chef Clément Chauvin from Les Bistronomes, who will be hosting cooking demonstrations and selling copies of Bistronomie, his cookbook that was named the best French cookbook in the world at the 2025 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Alongside local stallholders, there is another non-negotiable that Solveig is militant about when it comes to shaping the perfect blending of atmosphere and offerings, and that’s the integrity of the French concept.
“The food is 100 per cent French,” she says.
“We’re really strict about that because that’s what people want. As soon as you start diluting it, it becomes something else.”
If the Canberra edition of Le Marché proves to be successful, Solveig hopes to make it a regular stop for the markets to officially expand it into a multi-state enterprise.
“If it’s successful, we would like to come probably twice a year.”
Le Marché Paris to Canberra will take place at the exhibition pavilion at Thoroughbred Park on Sunday, 30 August, between 9:30 am and 3 pm. Admission is free. For more information, head to Facebook.