English speaking/foreign families in France

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Are you an English speaking/foreign family living in France? If you are interested in receiving an Au Pair but are more comfortable speaking English, you may find this page helpful - we have prepared a small summary in English of the information you can find on this website.

If you have any question, you can contact our bilingual team.

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About Pebbles

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About our Au Pairs

What is an Au Pair?
An Au Pair is a single person, without dependants aged 18-27 who wants to learn a foreign language and learn about the culture by living as part of the family. An Au Pair can be male or female. Most of our Au Pairs are European but we do also provide other nationalities as well.

An Au Pair is not a trained childcarer but will have some experience with children through babysitting, looking after siblings or tutoring but they rarely have any qualifications. They may also have some experience in housework. The Au Pairs tend to have a basic or intermediate level of French. Some Au Pairs are experienced drivers.

What is an Au Pair's role?
An Au Pair has a role that could be considered to be that of an older sister, or a visiting niece. Au Pairs are primarily expected to help with the children and also to carry out some light housework which should be mainly child-related. They are not a replacement for a cleaner or a hired help.

An Au Pair should be included in family activities including most mealtimes and some outings. They will expect to be treated as a family member and not an employee. This is essential if the placement is to succeed.

Where are the Au Pairs from?
We recruit our Au Pairs using our network of trustworthy partners through Europe and further afield who are all members of IAPA or commit to following their guidelines. Please note, native anglophones are very hard to find and only tend to be available for short durations for example in the summer. They are often only interested in 100% French speaking families.

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About the Au Pair's work conditions

What are the recommended hours and pocket money?

What are the first steps?

- To register for FREE please download the Family Registration Form.
- For a fast service, please EMAIL the completed form to contact@pebbles.fr
- Please try to include a photo of you and your children and the au pair's accommodation.

I have sent my form through....now what?!

- You will receive an acknowledgment by email asking you to confirm you accept our terms and
  to provide details of a referee.
- We will contact suitable candidates and email you some applicants who are interested in your family.
- On receiving your feedback we will either arrange a telephone interview for you or look again
- It's important to check your email account regularly - and your SPAM folder - and to give us your
  feedback as we won't send any other candidates through until we have your feedback.
- If for any reason you don't want to take a candidate's application any further, please do let us know.

I spoke to an Au Pair and want to take them on....what do I do now?

- We will ask the Au Pair for their feedback and ensure they have thought about it all properly -
  if they are interested, we will make a formal offer on your behalf and email you to confirm.
- Once the Au Pair accepts, you will receive an invoice by email - your Au Pair can book her
  travel on receipt of payment.
- You Au Pair will now contact you to suggest an arrival time and then book their travel.
- We recommend you stay in touch with your Au Pair until they arrive - this goes a long way to
  reassuring everyone involved - including the Au Pair's parents!

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Our Fees and Conditions

Program	Registration Fee	Placement Fee
Standard Plan*	-	495€
Pay As You Go Plan**	75€	50€/mois
Summer Au Pair	-	265€
Live-in English Teacher	-	295€

Choose the plan that best suits your family !


- The Placement fees are due once the Au Pair of your choice has accepted your offer to join your family.
- All prices include V.A.T. (T.V.A.))

NB: Cheques should be made payable to "Au Pairs by Pebbles".

Things you should know before taking on an Au Pair

Is it for me?

An Au Pair doesn't suit every family and it's important to consider the following points before deciding to take an au pair on. In most cases, the key to success is making sure your Au Pair is happy - if they are happy, you will be happy !

What exactly is the Au Pair program?

The term Au Pair comes from the French expression "on par" which implies that an Au Pair should be treated as an equal.

The exact definition is a young foreigner who lives with and becomes part of a family, in their own room, has full board and pocket money - in return they help look after children and do some light principally child-related housework. Their aim is to learn French and they will attend language lessons.

A new member of the family !

The Au Pair expects to become part of your family - this includes eating with you some or most evenings, joining in on some of the family outings and activities, watching tv with you at night. It is not an employer-employee relationship.

This doesn't mean she is going to live in your pocket - after a few weeks, the Au Pairs tend to make friends and go out more - but they may need encouragement to do so at first.

Hosting an Au Pair is a cultural exchange and not an employment contract.

The difference between an Au Pair and a Nanny

An Au Pair is not a trained childcarer - they are young adults with some experience with children through babysitting or working on summer camps etc - they don't tend to have any formal qualifications.

Their role is to look after children aged 3 and up for up to 5/6 hours a day. They can help look after children under 3, but must not have sole charge for longer than an hour or so.

The Au Pair will need guidance and training on arrival in your home - it make take them several weeks to adapt and learn how you want things done. You need to make sure you are 100% happy with the Au Pair before leaving them at home with the children on their own.

Remember - an Au Pair will not be as experienced or professional as a nanny - they are paid less for a reason!

How does the housework bit work?

An Au Pair is expecting to do some light housework - mainly related to the children. This could include tidying the children's rooms, preparing their dinner, doing their washing, changing their beds etc. They can also help with the evening meal, clean the main bathroom, wipe the kitchen down etc. They are of course responsible for cleaning their own room, doing their washing etc.

- Where the Au Pair is doing more than 10h housework a week and more housework/errands
  than childcare.
- Where the Au Pair is the only one doing any housework - they should help, not be responsible for
  all of it.
- Where the family doesn't do housework when the Au Pair is off, expecting them to do it on their return.

Remember - an Au Pair will not be as efficient or as thorough as a professional cleaner - it may be the first time that an Au Pair has done any housework, or they haven't done very much before, so they will need guidance and training and may not have great initiative yet.

Attracting the Top Quality Candidates

- The best candidates include university graduates, with childcare qualifications and/or extensive
  experience, good French and clear objectives of what they want to get out of this experience.
- These candidates will avoid positions where the housework goes over 7/8 hours per week, where they
  have to speak English to the children more than a few hours per week, where they are required to
  babysit every weekend.

Any good at giving Emotional Support and Encouragement?

Whilst the last thing you need is an extra child at home, even the best au pairs need some emotional support and encouragement.

They were very recently, or still are, teenagers so it goes without saying that they will occasionally (some more often than others!) need a shoulder to cry on if they are homesick or missing their boyfriend.

They may also need encouragement with their French and need to know you are happy with their work.

They are coming to learn French

The main motivation of nearly all Au Pairs is to learn French - they aim to reach an advanced level so will take every opportunity to improve through language school, conversing with the family, watching tv etc.

You will need to be patient with them in the early days, they generally improve quickly but need encouragement to attend school, it's good to try to correct their mistakes and to help them improve, write important things down and ask them to explain it back to you to ensure they have understood - they have been know to answer "yes" to every question when in fact they haven't understood a word!

Some families like the Au Pair to speak English to the children - this is generally not a problem if it's limited, for example to an hour a day, any more than that and the Au Pair may feel like they're not progressing and lose motivation and probably leave early.

The top quality candidates tend to avoid positions where they are required to speak English, unless very limited, as they feel it will slow down their progress in French.

Sometimes it doesn't work out

The honest reality is that, whilst lots of effort is put into making a placement work by the family, the Au Pair and the agency, a successful placement requires total strangers to live together in harmony...and sometimes things don't work out - in some cases the problems could have been avoided.

In the majority of cases the placements are successful - particularly where the family follows the guidelines and treats the Au Pair well - a significant percentage of our customers have successful Au Pairs year after year. However, a placement can breakdown for a wide variety of reasons:

Problems linked to the placement :

- There might be compatibility issues between the au pair and the parents and/or the children.
- The Au Pair feels more like an employee than a family member.
- The Au Pair is doing too much / all of the housework.
- The Au Pair finds it hard to gain respect from the children and is not backed up by the parents.
- They are not progressing in French enough due to speaking English too much.
- You decide that the Au Pair is not right for your family or that having an Au Pair is not the right solution
- The Au Pair decides it's not the right thing for her.

External Factors :

- The Au Pairs are young, their plans change - they might be offered a place on a course, or a job
  that they weren't expecting.
- Sadly, there are always a few cases each year where the Au Pair has serious family problems and has
  to return home.