Photo: Kirk Penton

Ludovic and Jessica Jan met more than 20 years ago at a hair school in Paris.

Did they foresee opening a hair salon together on Kelowna's Ellis Street one day?

“Absolutely not,” Jessica said with a laugh.

Yet here they are, less than two months into their stint as owners of Opus Salon, and they’re loving their new life as Okanagan business owners.

The husband and wife moved to Canada 11 years ago and started working at Opus Salon in Vancouver’s Yaletown.

“We just wanted a change. We were young, and we just wanted something new,” Ludovic said. “We came on a working holiday, just like a lot of French and Europeans, and we just never left.”

They eventually bought the business and last year decided to move to Kelowna with their two children.

“It’s a bit wet in Vancouver, and I guess we were a bit tired of the weather,” Ludovic said. “But also we wanted something different for our kids, a smaller city where we could spend more time together and not so much in traffic.”

Added Jessica: “More community. More local shops. That’s what we wanted.”

For more on this story visit Okanagan Edge.