I spent about 11 months working in France as an au pair in 2000. I was 17 when I arrived which was fine because I had a British passport (without an EU passport you have to be 18, as far as I know). I lived in a town of 60 000 people just to the north of Paris. My job was to look after a little bilingual girl of 5 years old and to speak English to her. A typical day went like this:
7:00
Get up and get myself ready (while parents usually got Mathilde ready)
7:45
Make sure Mathilde was ready (a fight to get her to turn the TV off and brush her teeth etc.)
7:50
10min walk to the bus stop, where we boarded a usually very crowded bus, often standing room only (not much fun with a 5 year old!)
8:30
Start of school for Mathilde, so the start of my free time!
I filled in this time by doing several things:
- For the first 4 months I went to a French course at the university, for 3 hours a week (definitely not enough, but it's all they offered!)
- Later I found free French classes provided by volunteers...I usually went twice a week and learnt quite a bit there.
- I did have some jobs to do around the house including: vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, mopping, some ironing (I did it at the start but gradually slackened off!), some cooking (maybe once a week!), making sure all clothes had been washed and dried, turn the dishwasher on! Sometimes I ran little errands too (eg. posting letters)
- Slowly improving my French comprehension by watching bad daytime TV
- One-off things like talking to an English class about Australia at a high school, going on excursions with Mathilde's class, teaching basic English, yoga (didn't work out!)etc.
4:20
I left to pick Mathilde up
4:50
Mathilde finished school, we caught the bus home - sometimes we would walk (it wasn't actually that far) and occasionally stop off at a park.
Evening
Mathilde and I would sometimes play games, or just watch TV, or she would take her bath straight away (depending on if it was a school day the next day, if she was tired etc.). While she was taking her bath, I would prepare dinner (usually something simple from the fridge with minimal cooking) - really I would have liked to do more cooking, but the spicy vegetarian food I am
used to didn't go down well with Mathilde so I gave up very early on. We would eat dinner together, then I would clean up...we would then either watch TV, read books, or Mathilde would play in her room until either her parents came home, or if they were going to be back late I would put her to bed by 8:30. And then my day was finished (unless Mathilde got up again!)
The only day that was radically different to this was each Wednesday, when French children do not go to school. On Wednesday's, I would take Mathilde to dance classes and, later in the year, to ice skating too. After getting
ready for, going to and participating in those activities the day was gone!
Also, of course, there were the days when Mathilde was sick - not much fun at all! I remember that for about 4 days in a row I basically did not leave the house...
It all sounds very easy the way I have written it - I've made no mention of how hard the walk to the bus stop could be, the difficulty of putting a child to bed if she's only seen her parents for 10 mins that day, and I've missed
out the fun times we had together. But I'm just trying to give a brief idea of what au pairing can be like.
What I have to mention is the holidays! In the first 4 months I was there I went to Ireland for a week with the family - I stayed with them for the first few days and then stayed with my distant relatives for the rest of the time. I also went on a short trip with the family to Belgium and the Netherlands. Whenever Mathilde had school holidays I could do as I pleased (as she went to stay with her grandparents) so during her first holidays I went to visit a friend in the centre of France. Then in summer I had 2 months vacation, a month of which I spent working for another family. I looked after a 10 year old girl and 8 year old boy and had a great time. I then spent the next month travelling France (usually alone), as well as going to Switzerland and England! I had more holidays in
France later on in the year too.
My au pair experience was great. My family was easy-going and often treated me as an exchange student, rather than a nanny. I often went on family excursions
with them - visiting their family (eg. experiencing a French Christmas), going to Disneyland Paris etc. etc. Mathilde was not an easy child, but you learn to cope! To be an au pair was one of the best decisions I have made - my year made me more independent, more positive and my French improved!
If you want more info on au pairing then here are a few suggestions:
The Au Pair and Nannies Guide to Working Abroad - a British book with loads of information about au pairing in general as well as agencies etc.
Au Pair Box - online meeting place for au pairs. (See
my links section) I met up with several people I found here, one of whom I am still great friends with.
E-mail me!
Keep looking on the internet, there are heaps of sites out there!
Bonne chance!
