Anais
I am from the South West of France. My boyfriend is from Limousin,in the center of France. I have a degree in hairdressing. My boyfriend has a professional degree in bakery. I always liked to listen to his stories while he was working at the bakery. It was like I could bake bread after listening to his stories. At the end of my studies, I stayed unemployed for a year. It was impossible to find a job. I was asked to have several years of experience while I was a young graduate. I accepted a small job in a factory, paid very little. So, we said to ourselves: if we have to work so much we better do it for us.
At 19 and 24 years old, we left the south of France for the Limousin and we opened our bakery on January 30th, 2017. He had already left everything for me once, so I decided to do the same for him, for our family. It was not easy. We started the first administrative procedures in September and had to face the French administration, it’s a bit like a cat biting its own tail: to get paper A, you must have paper B, but to have paper B you must have paper A. We went through all the stages: deposit of the statutes, internships at the chamber of commerce, bank loans, etc.
Today we have a small clientele. We discover things every day, the habits of customers some of which are quite funny. As we are in a village, people expect us to remember the names, first names and even nicknames of everyone. Of course, it created some anecdotes. We are also offering a larger range of special breads, and sometimes even gluten free. It changes their habits.
The next steps: put a refrigerated showcase in the truck to be able to offer pastry to customers during the three tours we do to other villages. And especially find a better pace of life, to spend more time with our son. It’s not easy to reconcile professional life and personal life, especially when you have a toddler, and a job with such busy schedule.
