This blog is going to be dedicated to the next ~10 months of my life. In less than a week I will be flying to Paris and spending my time there as an au pair. Hopefully I will be able to do a decent amount of travelling while I am over there! I thought a blog would be a good way to keep all my friends and family updated on what’s going on with me. I will try to update regularly and I’ll make sure to post lots of photos.
And now for a quick overview on my situation:
What is an au pair?
An au pair is kind of like a nanny. The details vary from country to country and also from family to family but it is a common concept in Europe. I will be living with a family and helping take care of their kids while the parents are working. I stay with the family for free and get a modest weekly allowance. In my case the family will also be paying for my mobile and metro pass. A contingency of being an au pair in France is that I must take French language classes while I am there as well.
What is the family like?
They live in a suburb of Paris. Parents are divorced and I will be living with the mother, but the father is very close by and they share the children week to week. The children are two girls, ages 12 and 7. I have skyped with all four members of the family and I get along with them very well. The mother speaks English quite fluently, the father speaks it fairly well, but the children do not speak it at all.
Why did you decide to do this?
I studied Comparative Literature and Culture in university, which -as you might guess- is basically looking at the literature and culture of mostly Western Europe. I also studied French and Italian as part of my honours specialization. It seemed kind of silly to me to study these cultures and languages without ever experiencing them first hand. Between wanting to travel, wanting to become fluent in French and not wanting to go into debt to do these things, an au pair position seemed like the best fit.
How did you become an au pair?
There are many different sites and agencies you can use if you want to be an au pair. I joined one agency and one site but ended up being the site that I found my family through. The site I used is http://www.aupair-world.net. It’s almost like a matchmaking site, but for families and au pairs. You set up a profile with a few blurbs about yourself and what you’re looking for, set up some parameters to filter through the families and then you’re given all the families that meet your criteria. You also get an email every day linking you to new families who have joined who meet your criteria. I joined in March and even though I was constantly in contact with many families, I didn’t find my family until June. At that point it was time for a seemingly endless stream of paperwork. I had to collect numerous documents including translations of a few documents by an accredited translator and send them to France. These documents along with proof that I had been enrolled in a language course in France then had to be approved by the administration there. Once approved, my contract and proof of enrolment in a language course were sent to me and these documents then made it possible for me to apply for my visa. It took about a month and a half from when my family and I agreed to work with each other to me getting back the documents I needed for my visa. Very much to my chagrin, when I went to book my visa appointment there was nothing available for six weeks – almost two weeks after my contract would be starting in France! I sent an email to the French consulate explaining my situation and amazingly I was given an appointment about a month earlier than my original appointment date. I had quite a few documents to bring to the appointment but it went very quickly and a week later (today!) I received my visa. There will be more paperwork to do once I am in France, but the most stressful part is over.
So that brings us to now. I felt I could finally make a post now that I have my visa and know I will be making it there on time. I’m planning on leaving Monday (less than a week!!!) so I will have a few days to explore Paris before I begin my contract. I have never been to France before!
That’s all for now. My next post will be coming to you from Paris!
Victoria's Adventures Abroad 
Victoria I am so excited to see this!! I can’t wait to see and hear all about your adventures!! Lots of love, Tanya
Hahaha I love it! I used aupair-world too and always compare it to a dating website lol! I’m glad to see you Canadians seem to have as much paper work and translations as I did! So worth it now!
Where in Canada are you from? I am also heading to Paris to au pair and am having a hard time with the visa process!
I’m from the General Toronto Area. What problems are you having? The process was certainly a pain in the ass.
I’m from nova scotia and have to deal with the montreal consulate. Everyone I have talked to have had to get an appointment with their consulate but its so far away from me. Like a straight 10 hours drive. I contacted the consulate and they said in broken english because they are all french that I didn’t need to book an appointment, but it worries me.
Wow, that’s really rough. I was so lucky to have a consulate right next to me. I can’t speak for the Montreal consulate but I did have to book an appointment at the Toronto one. They had about a 6 week waiting period but I happily was squeezed in on a cancellation. However, the booking was all done online. They seem to be pretty anti-phone calls there. Have you looked at their website?