Our Story

It started with Nono.

His name was José, but everyone in the Van der Linden family called him Nono.

Nono was one of six children, growing up in Belgium. When he was just thirteen years old, his father told him he was going to work in a bakery.

So that's what he did.

Every evening, he would go to the bakery in town, bringing home bread to feed the family, without being paid.

That's where he learned to bake.

As he grew older, Nono and his Italian wife, Lidia (Nona), started a small bakery of their own. They rented a tiny shop, with Nona looking after the customers and selling what they made while Nono baked.

At the same time, Nono was building towards something of his own.

He bought a small piece of land and began building his own bakery, brick by brick, with their family home upstairs.

Eventually, that little bakery became Boulangerie Van der Linden, in Trazegnies, Belgium.

And it became a family business.

The family bakery

Nono's two sons, Vincent & Patrice, grew up around the bakery and followed the same path, studying baking, food and everything that came with running a family business.

The bakery was a real family affair.

Nono baked. Nona looked after the customers. His sons learned the trade and eventually joined the business.

When Nono retired, his eldest son, Vincent, took over Boulangerie Van der Linden in 2000, continuing what his father had started. His wife, Agnes (also Italian!), was there too, looking after the customers and keeping the family tradition going.

The bakery may have changed hands, but it stayed in the family.

From flour to chocolate

The younger son, Patrice, eventually had to take a different path.

After discovering that he had developed a flour allergy, he could no longer work in the family bakery.

So he turned his attention to something else he loved: chocolate.

He became a master Belgian chocolatier, and his chocolate business is still based in the same part of Belgium today.

Growing up around it

For Patrice's daughter, Thaïs, baking was simply part of growing up.

She spent time with Nono, Nona, and her dad, helping out and watching them work. The bakery, the food and the family around it were all part of everyday life.

At the time, she probably didn't realise that one day those memories would travel all the way to Australia.

Then came Australia.

Years later, whilst studying in Australia, Thaïs and Chris met and fell in love.

She moved to Australia to be with him, and together they started a family of their own.

Now we have a daughter, a home here in Moreton Bay, and a life that we love.

But we still had a little piece of Belgium with us.

And we wanted to share it.

La Petite Belgique

That's where La Petite Belgique began.

La Petite Belgique means “The Little Belgium” — and that's exactly what we wanted to create here in Australia. A little piece of Belgium of our own, built around the things that matter to us: family, tradition, and good food.

It's our way of bringing the traditions that have been passed down through our family to our new home in Australia.

From a thirteen-year-old boy learning to bake in a bakery in Belgium, to a bakery built brick by brick by Nono and Nona, to the family business that followed — baking has been part of our family for generations.

Now we're continuing that story here.

Our Belgian-inspired treats are baked by us, in small batches, and shared with our local community.

It's a long way from Trazegnies to Moreton Bay.

But some things don't need to change.

Belgian traditions, baked over generations.