PARADISE VALLEY, Alta. – A Norwegian couple with a yen to meet people stopped in this eastern Alberta village during their travels in 1998 and liked who they met.
Three years later they decided to make Paradise Valley their home.
While touring Canada by motorhome, Bjorn and Elin Halvorsen looked up relatives in Paradise Valley. They found the Selte family and stayed for a week.
“We had a really good time, even though we’d never seen them before,” said Bjorn.
Added his wife Elin: “It took two days to find out the family connection.”
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It turned out that the Alberta relative’s father was Bjorn’s grandfather’s first cousin. A tentative connection for some became a strong one for the couple. The Halvorsens returned to Alberta in 2000 for a Selte family wedding and their eldest daughter worked in the area in 2001 as an exchange student.
“She phoned and said ‘come over.’ So we came over here,” said Elin.
That year they bought an old hardware store and renovated it into a café, the first the village had had in years. PV Café has become a popular meal and coffee spot since it opened in 2002.
The Halvorsens had previously run a restaurant for 13 years in the Canary Islands before immigrating to Canada with their four children, who are now adults back in Norway. They would be with their parents except Canada has made it difficult for them to stay without work permits, Elin said.
The parents, however, are applying to be permanent residents. They are doing the paperwork themselves but it is still going to cost $3,000. They find Canada’s immigration system odd, especially since they came to a rural area and started a business with their own money.
“We had to wait outside the country eight or nine months to get the work permit,” Bjorn said.
However, other than government, being Norwegian hasn’t been a hindrance for the pair, who learned to speak English in school.
“I’m waiting on tables and they can hear my accent and then they start to ask,” Elin said.
“We spoke English when we came but we had to learn farm terms like baler and combine.”
The Halvorsens have hung the Norwegian flag outside the café beside the Canadian and Alberta flags, which has proved a draw for some people. They are proud of their homeland and often bring out picture books to show views of Norway’s fjords, islands and water. Bjorn said they decided to do the café interior in a rustic fashion with lots of wood and Norwegian colours such as blue chairs and reddish walls. Elin’s quilting work is on the walls and the wooden tables come from Ikea, a Swedish furniture store.
The kitchen is open to the restaurant area so Bjorn can talk with the customers.
The menu, while offering the usual hamburger and french fries, has Norwegian soups and desserts and a chicken sandwich special that reflects their time in the Canary Islands. Bjorn also likes to offer lots of fried onions on the meat dishes.
They buy some bread but make most of it by hand, including the cinnamon buns that are baked fresh every morning. Although they had hoped to be able to buy local produce, health department regulations required a more standard supply source.
Elin said they try to cook in a healthy way; only the french fries are deep fried.
Added Bjorn: “I don’t start cooking until someone’s given their order. And there’s no microwave oven here. We’re not used to it.”
Lunch remains the busiest time for the couple, who work until 7 p.m. each night and only take off Sundays. When Bjorn has time, he helps on local farms and has done branding, fencing and baling.
The Halvorsens also take regular visits back to Norway to see their children, but Paradise Valley will be their home base.
“We feel so safe here,” said Bjorn, who noted that in the summer the café has tables, chairs and flowers outside and none have been damaged by the local youth who sometimes gathered there in the evenings.
“Other places you would have to chain it down,” Elin added.
