HALLOWELL — A new French bakery, Belle Boulangerie, will fill an empty Water Street storefront, marking the latest in a string of business openings downtown.

Galyna Syrota, the bakery’s owner, previously made baked goods for markets in the Bangor area and ran a popular bakery under the same name in Sebec, which had in-bakery dining and live music. Often, her husband Ambrose Lovely said, customers would line up around the block a half-hour before the bakery even opened.

“Working all the previous day, get up at 3 a.m. to open the door at 8, and then sometimes we wouldn’t even make it to 9 o’clock before selling out,” Lovely said. “Done, gone. Everything.”

When Syrota was unable to extend her lease in Sebec, she began looking for a new location that had a vibrant and developing food scene. She found the spot at 156 Water St. — which was formerly a barber shop and, more recently, a gluten-free bakery — while shopping in the area with her sister- and mother-in law.

“I just fell in love with it,” Syrota said.

Belle Boulangerie adds to Hallowell’s growing downtown scene, too. The bakery is the third business to fill an empty Water Street storefront in just the last several months. Lady J’s Elegant Attire and Event Planning opened at the corner or Water and Winthrop streets in January, and Lately’s bagel and pizza shop  plans to open its doors soon, too.

The new bakery will sell all kinds of French baked goods — freshly made croissants, brioches, pain au chocolats and baguettes — over a counter. The store will have no seating inside, and Syrota said she wants to lean into the grab-and-go model.

Syrota is originally from Ukraine, and she trained in Paris’ Le Cordon Bleu culinary school before moving to Maine eight years ago with Lovely. Many of her baked goods are inspired by her time in Paris, Lovely said.

The two met while teaching together at the Kyiv International School — Syrota, math, and Lovely, English. They planned their wedding during the pro-European Union Maidan Revolution in Ukraine at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014. They couldn’t even get wedding rings; the jewelry shops were closed for fear of looting.

Eventually, the two made it to Maine, where Lovely grew up. After several years of selling her baked goods at farmers’ markets, Syrota opened the original Belle Boulangerie in Sebec last June. Now, the couple hopes to set up a longer-term, year-round operation in Hallowell.

To start, Belle Boulangerie will be open from 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays and Saturdays, but Syrota said she hopes to expand to other days of the week after she feels out the response from customers.

“In Sebec, we always were open three days a week, right, Ambrose?” Syrota said.

“Yeah,” Lovely responded, laughing. “Three days a week for a grand total of five hours, because she’d just sell out.”