Corgémont: an opening that almost never happened

On 16 septembre 2026, La Parisienne opened the doors of its new shop at 21 Grand-Rue in Corgémont.

For the people who came to discover the shop that morning, it simply looked like a new bakery opening in the village.

But behind this opening lies a very particular story.

Just a few weeks earlier, we still thought that La Parisienne in Corgémont might never become a reality.

And if we are present in the village today, it is largely thanks to two people who decided, at a moment when we absolutely did not expect it, to place their trust in us.

A bakery we really wanted to take over

Before La Parisienne, the people of Corgémont knew this address as Chez Jean-Pierre.

The bakery already played an important role in village life and also had one special feature: it housed the Corgémont postal branch.

When Chez Jean-Pierre closed its doors on 31 juillet 2026, the postal service located inside the bakery was also temporarily suspended.

When the opportunity arose to take over the business, we loved the idea.

Keeping a bakery alive in the village, preserving a local business and helping maintain the postal service all made a great deal of sense to us.

There was just one problem.

And it was not a small one.

We did not have the money needed to take over Corgémont.

Sometimes a simple conversation can change everything

At that point, we thought we would have to give up.

Then one day, we spoke about the project with Mike and Marjorie Todeschini of Todeschini S.A.

We explained the situation quite simply: we would have liked to take over the Corgémont bakery, but financially we could not afford another takeover.

And during that conversation, something rather unexpected happened.

Mike and Marjorie looked at each other.

And both seemed to be thinking the same thing:

helping us.

Nothing had been decided at that point.

But that conversation opened a door we had until then believed was closed.

From a conversation to a real project

What could have remained a simple idea discussed in conversation began to become much more concrete.

There were several discussions.

Several meetings.

We talked about the project, its financing and how this takeover could genuinely become possible.

Then Mike and Marjorie made a decision that would change everything for us:

they agreed to lend us the money needed to make the Corgémont takeover possible.

We will never forget that gesture.

Because beyond the financial help, it represents something much more important in our eyes:

trust.

They could simply have listened to our story, wished us good luck and left the conversation there.

They had absolutely no obligation to get involved in our project.

And yet, they chose to do so.

They chose to believe in La Parisienne and give us the opportunity to go further.

Without them, La Parisienne in Corgémont probably would not exist today

We want to say this clearly:

without Mike and Marjorie Todeschini, we probably would not have been able to open La Parisienne in Corgémont.

This is not a sentence written simply to thank them.

It is genuinely what happened.

We could not finance the takeover on our own, and their loan turned a project we thought we would have to abandon into a real bakery.

A bakery where people can now come for their bread, croissants, pastries or sandwiches.

And we do not take the trust they placed in us for granted in any way.

We are enormously grateful to them.

On 16 September, the doors finally open

After the meetings, discussions, decisions and all the necessary preparation, the project finally became a reality.

On 16 septembre 2026, La Parisienne officially opened its doors in Corgémont.

The date also had a particular significance for us.

The day before, on 15 septembre, we had only just moved all our production from Sonvilier to our new workshop in Courtelary.

In just two days, a large part of La Parisienne’s organisation had changed.

Since then, products for Corgémont have been prepared in our Courtelary workshop before being delivered to the Corgémont shop on each opening day.

Bread, viennoiseries, pastries, sandwiches, savoury products… our production now takes place only a few kilometres from the shop.

A bakery, but also the return of a service for the village

The Corgémont takeover also meant something else.

At 21 Grand-Rue, the bakery had housed a Swiss Post branch for several years.

When Chez Jean-Pierre closed, this service had to be temporarily suspended.

With the opening of La Parisienne, we wanted to preserve this special feature of the business and allow the postal service to return to its place in the village.

Today, people can come to the same address to buy bread or viennoiseries and use the postal services offered by the branch.

For us, keeping this kind of service in our villages is important.

A village bakery is not simply a place where people buy bread.

It is also a local business, a place people visit regularly and sometimes a service whose importance becomes truly clear only when it disappears.

People behind every opening

When a new sign appears on a storefront, we do not necessarily see everything that happened beforehand.

The discussions.

The doubts.

The problems that had to be solved.

The people who lend a hand.

And sometimes those who, at a decisive moment, do something that completely changes what happens next.

For Corgémont, those people were Mike and Marjorie Todeschini.

Thanks to them, a sentence that initially sounded like:

“We would really like to take over Corgémont, but we cannot afford it.”

became, a few weeks later:

“La Parisienne is opening in Corgémont.”

For that alone, we will remain grateful to them for a very long time.

So, quite simply: thank you

We wanted to dedicate this article to the story because it seemed important that people who visit our shop today also know how it came to exist.

So:

Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Marjorie.

Thank you for listening to us.

Thank you for believing in our project.

Thank you for agreeing to take part in this adventure when you had no obligation to do so.

And above all, thank you for giving us the opportunity to do what we love: making bread, croissants and our products every day for people in the region.

Thanks to your trust, La Parisienne is now also part of Corgémont.

And we hope to keep this bakery alive there for a very long time.

Since 16 September 2026, a new page of our story has been written at 21 Grand-Rue in Corgémont.