Army Navy Surplus is located at 1244 Lake Blvd. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. More info: Call (229) 251-8011

Growing up in France, William Brondeau developed an early interest in history and military paraphernalia.

When his was 15, he was apprenticed to a pastry chef, Jean Pierre, who was an avid military collector.

“In France, an apprenticeship is something that doesn’t just teach you how to make cakes and stuff,” said Brondeau. “It teaches you everything, the way you should act in your life.”

Pierre showed his collection to William, which William compares to a museum collection, and started taking him along to collector shows.

William can’t recall anything like an epiphany or a sudden click, but little by little, collecting got into his blood. He likens it to the nicotine high smokers get, or to a racing river.

“You put your finger in it — whoosh — and you never get out. You can have ups and down, but you’ll never stop.”

After his apprenticeship, William and his wife, Celine, went into the bakery business, eventually owning and running two bakeries.

William’s collection grew along the way.

While he has a special interest in the U.S. Marine Corps, particularly pre-World War I, William is a kind of jack-of-all-trades collector.

“I focus on everything and nothing, any war, any country. I don’t know if it’s good or bad.”

As his collection grew, so did William’s desire to move to the United States.

He talked about it so much and for so long, he says, that some friends probably thought he was crying wolf.

If that’s the case, they must have been surprised when he and Celine sold their bakeries and moved to the U.S. in 1998.

At first, they thought they might be here a year or two, but quickly decided to make the U.S. their permanent home.

William worked for different companies, country clubs and hotels as a pastry chef before opening up his own bakery in Florida.

He kept collecting on the side, buying, selling.

Eventually, he sold his Florida bakery and went into the collecting business full-time and now, he’s opened up his own store in Lake Park, Army Navy Surplus: Military Antiques and

Collectibles.

Lake Park is a place he and Celine had passed through many times, traveling up and down I-75 for shows.

He had planned to open up in Byron, but he stopped in Lake Park on the way up and found the perfect place right in the Lake Park Outlets.

William’s shotgun approach to collecting throughout the years has given him a far-ranging collection, everything from World War I cavalry uniforms to Belgian tunics to a complete Napoleonic Guard uniform from the 1860s.

“I always say collectors are more powerful than a museum … I’ve seen so many museums come and go, but a collector, when they get something they hold on to it.”

For his next big project, he wants to restore a World War II Jeep to fresh off the factory floor condition, even down to the screws.

That project partly hinges on whether he can convince an old friend to move to the U.S.

“America is not easy. You’ve got to work. That’s what I like. You’ve got to work and if you do, you’ve got a chance to do whatever you want.”