About Us
Serendipity: The Little French Shoppe
Established in 1991
Situated in the heart of old town Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada.
We are a small boutique shop selling everything from tablecloths made from French cotton linens to tableware, pottery, soaps, jewellery, and many more unique items for you and your home.
An American brings the French Art de La Table to Niagara, Ontario.
The first-time Ruth came across French fabric was during one of her first trips to Paris. She was strolling in the quaint streets of Montmartre, occupied at that time by tiny fabric stores and sewing workshops. Ruth laid her eyes on the beautiful fabrics and couldn’t resist buying a few. Back home, she had her mother sew the hems. Her life-long love affair with French Jacquards and market cottons was born.
American-born Ruth Aspinall and her Canadian husband moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, in the early 90s in search of a less stressful and more pleasurable lifestyle. Once settled, they opened a European-flair restaurant on the main street. With a typical Provençal décor (blue and yellow walls with terracotta tiles), the restaurant style clashed with the locals’ taste at first… But a few years later, it became a trendy hotspot for tourists and locals alike.
With the restaurant business in full swing, Ruth started to think of ways to share her love for French tablecloths and kitchen accents with her international clientele. She set up a small space in the back of the restaurant and started to sell French mustards, jams, pottery, and table linens. The little side venture was an instant hit.
What started as a few retail shelves in the back of a restaurant grew into a profitable business. Quickly, she opened her very own “Little French Shoppe”, a few doors down the street.
Entering “The Little French Shoppe” is an instant mood-booster. The piles of linens, tablecloths, and napkins burst with vibrant colours and peppy patterns. On one side, French Jacquard linens display vibrant colour blocks with sophisticated patterns woven into the heavy fabric. On the other side, market cotton tablecloths adorn the distinctive Provençal prints of olives and flowers. These signature styles of linens, usually found in French market stalls, are today the stars of Ruth’s Canadian store.
