SKANEATELES - Alain Castel knew that he had found The One.

Walking through an old farmhouse on State Street Road, he was confident that this was the right location to start up his new bistro, the best place for him and longtime partner Joelle Mollinger to offer residents and visitors un peu de France in Skaneateles.

“I saw the restaurant right here,” Castel said as he motioned throughout the dining room, the reflection from the snow falling outside filling the room with light. “We saw this place and fell in love with it and that was it.”

Roughly a year later, Castel and Mollinger are just weeks away from opening Joelle's French Bistro. Though their focus up until now has been knocking out walls, installing a large picture window and finding just the right shade of green paint, soon the duo will get to do what they do best.

For Castel, that's managing a restaurant. For Mollinger, it's stirring up crepes suzette, bouillabaisse, coq au vin, steak au poivre and other top-grade French cuisine.

The months of renovations have been challenging, but the restaurant business is far from foreign to either Castel or Mollinger.

Castel's family is from Antibes in the south of France, and his father was a famous chef who moved the family to Nairobi, where Castel lived for 19 years. Castel then went to France and worked as a busboy and maitre d#, at Hotel du Cap's Eden-Roc restaurant and in 1982 moved to New York City.

After working as a manager at several French restaurants, he decided to open his own, Pigalle, named after a region in France. He did it a second time and for the last 12 years ran Country Cafe in SoHo.

It was the latter establishment that brought Castel and Mollinger together.

Mollinger, a law school graduate who decided instead to pursue cooking, her self-taught passion, moved to New York City in 1990 after running her own restaurants in Paris.

When the restaurant that she started in Manhattan didn't go so well, one of the waiters said that he knew of someone who was starting up a French restaurant, and he introduced Mollinger to Castel.

“The first thing I asked her was ‘Do you know how to cook?',” Castel recalled with a smile.

In 2005, weary of the city life, Castel and Mollinger began to think about moving.

“After two restaurants, we wanted to sort of not retire but slow down and make something sort of really cozy and comfortable and nice,” Castel said.

One of his customers was a Skaneateles resident and said that the town would be a great fit. Castel and Mollinger later visited Skaneateles and purchased the 1866 former bed and breakfast on that trip, citing the area's landscape and quality of life.

They now live on the second floor, just above the restaurant that will seat 40.

So what will be on the menu at Joelle's French Bistro?

“I like to work with spice; I like fusion of things,” said Mollinger, who spent her early years in Morocco and plans to prepare traditional French fare but also will incorporate tastes and spices from other cultures.

The pair will be flying in fish from Boston and will work with local farmers to purchase fresh produce. In addition to French wines, they'll also be promoting some fine Finger Lakes varieties.

And there's no room for snobbery at chez Castel and Mollinger.

“(The ambiance will be) comfortable,” Mollinger said. “We really want people to be at ease.”

That mood will be created with relaxing background music, a lounge area that's appropriate for a glass of wine with some tapas and a lit outdoor porch for enjoying breathtaking Skaneateles sunsets on their 3.5 acres.

The neighbors, they say, have been extremely kind, inviting them to holiday meals and throwing them a welcoming party.

“(They've) opened their houses and their hearts,” Castel said. “That was my idea of America when I first came here (America).”

Castel and Mollinger hope to open their doors for lunches, dinners and brunches in late January or early February - definitely in time for Valentine's Day, Mollinger said.

The restaurant will start with four servers and four people assisting Mollinger in the kitchen.

For now, it's just a matter of finishing up the renovations and putting on the finishing touches (they've even brought a little bit of Manhattan, as the restaurant's front door will have the doorknob of the famed Plaza Hotel; they purchased the item at an auction).

“It is exciting, it's fun,” Castel said of opening the bistro. “And you know where you're going and you know what you're going to do. That's the fun part is that you know you're going to make people enjoy.”