Australia’s top athletes are out to make their mark on Paris over the coming weeks, their best endeavours leaving a powerful, if fleeting, impact on the French capital. But many of the several thousand Australians who live locally have already made an enduring impression on French life.

Fox McInerney, owner of coffee shop Good News and roastery Cayo, says Australian cafe culture has taken hold in the past decade, and there are now more than 10 Australian-owned or run businesses in central Paris providing an alternative to the dominant local brand Cafés Richard.

“[Cafés Richard] have a real monopoly over a lot of the bistros, the old school places,” McInerney says. “The coffee that they’ve taught France to appreciate is rubbish, it’s burnt, it’s over extracted, it’s horrible, but because people are used to that this is their perception of what a good coffee tastes like. But it’s changing.”

The 45-year-old, who came to France from Melbourne and initially worked in bike touring and graphic design, was encouraged by his partner to start a coffee shop after he wouldn’t stop complaining about the quality of the local coffee.

McInerney’s six-year venture has now expanded to a roasting business, and is among a growing set of Australian-influenced cafes including Coutume, The Hardware Societe, Lomi and O Coffee.

It hasn’t always been easy convincing Parisians. A so-called Australian espresso might be twice the price of a local option, with half the volume. “They’re sometimes a bit shocked by that here and they can get quite upset – it’s usually the older generation that do that – but yeah, you just have to respect that people have different expectations,” McInerney says.

Those behind Café Oz – a chain of bars offering an Australian-style party pub – claim a similar impact on Parisian nightlife. After its launch in 1992, Café Oz has helped bring diversity to the local scene, by offering an English-style, walk-up bar combined with sport on large screens and a raucous atmosphere.

Director of development, James McEwan-Hall – who grew up on the northern beaches of Sydney and credits a high school teacher for inspiring in him a love of French – said Café Oz’s model represented a change from table service that is common to many French establishments. “A lot of other bars have popped up, and I think people saw the way that we do it and how simple it is,” he adds.

Within the higher-end culinary scene, several Australians have become prominent figures. The 35-year-old head chef Hanz Gueco has won favour at his French-Chinese fusion restaurant Le Cheval D’Or, and James Henry and Shaun Kelly have made Le Doyenné, their restaurant 41km south of Paris in a country estate, an international tourist destination.

Jana Lai, an Australian-born pastry chef who has lived in France for nine years, has also worked her way to the top of her field from starting as an assistant. “There were maybe one or two people who really underestimated me, which was fantastic,” Lai says. “They basically thought that I was a zero – which I kind of was – and that just lit that fire and made me really angry, and when that happens, you just want to show everybody that they’re wrong, and so that’s what I’ve been doing since.”

The 38-year-old was the first woman to join the French team in the prestigious World Pastry Cup last year, and plans to enter the Meilleur Ouvrier de France, a competition made famous by the 2009 documentary Kings of Pastry.

Despite the gendered traditions in the sector, Lai says she has found her industry welcoming, and she is also beginning to appreciate the impact she is having on those that come after her.

“After the last few competitions, I’ve had many females come up to me, and they’ve said – and they make me cry as well – ‘thank you, and you’re such an inspiration’,” Lai says. “I don’t see myself in that way at all, but hearing it from people, you’re like, ‘hmm, maybe I could go further’.”

McInerney believes he couldn’t have had the success he’s had without the general level of goodwill shown by most Parisians towards Australians.

“That I would want to come and live in France was just mind boggling to them,” he says. “They couldn’t understand because the one thing they wanted to do in their life was just go to Australia and maybe never come back.”