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Event founder Solveig Coulon-Legay is excited to be expanding Le March\u00e9 into Canberra. Photo: Le March\u00e9 markets.<\/p>\n
Popular Sydney market Le March\u00e9 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.<\/p>\n
Rolling into Thoroughbred Park on 30 August, the vibrant outdoor market promises to recreate the experience of wandering through a neighbourhood market in France.<\/p>\n
The event\u2019s founder, Solveig Coulon-Legay, is the real deal, telling Region in her lyrical French accent, \u201cIt\u2019s not just a market where you come, do your shopping and leave; people come and spend the morning. It\u2019s a destination!\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was launched during COVID, in between lockdowns, as a tiny little market on a carpark,\u201d Solveig says, explaining that many of the original stallholders that began with them six years ago are still involved today.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Bruno Paressant and Bronwyn Thomson will be attending Le March\u00e9 in their roaming cr\u00eape van, Le Petit Breton Cr\u00eapes. Photo: Martin Conway.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 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 Cr\u00eapes, and we\u2019re working with the Alliance Fran\u00e7aise Canberra.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Canberra\u2019s celebrity chef, Cl\u00e9ment Chauvin from Les Bistronomes, will be attending the markets with copies of his award-winning cookbook, Bistronomie. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.<\/p>\n
With a keen eye for the Canberra restaurant scene, the Le March\u00e9 team has also secured Chef Cl\u00e9ment 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s the integrity of the French concept.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe food is 100 per cent French,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really strict about that because that\u2019s what people want. As soon as you start diluting it, it becomes something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Canberra edition of Le March\u00e9 proves to be successful, Solveig hopes to make it a regular stop for the markets to officially expand it into a multi-state enterprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s successful, we would like to come probably twice a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Le March\u00e9 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n