To anyone who has used au pair world before

My experiences have been positive, with quite a few invitations (8+). You, being female, will find it easier to successfully find a family though. Ensure that you get to know them before agreeing anything. The site recommends using email, Skype and other social means to ascertain whether you are suited to each other.

Could I just re-awaken this thread as I'm very interested in hearing of people's experiences of au pair world too!

It's quite a confusing site but looks pretty good plus they don't rip you off straight away like some other agencies

Hi, don't know if this is too late for you, but I'm currently living in France after finding a family using au pair world. My experience of it was excellent; is there anything specific you'd like to know about?

Hiya thanks for the reply! Well I have managed to find the perfect family just outside Paris and I'm not even really au pairing as their mum doesn't work- they want someone english speaking in the house to keep up their children's english and the kids are 9 and 12 so it's pretty ideal, apart from the fact they'll be paying me a fair bit less as I won't be doing a lot so I'm going to be so poor. Any general advice on moving/living to France would be useful- actually, what did you do about travel insurance? I've obviously got an EHIC but what about the insurance covering repatriation in the case of you being too ill to get home without medical assistance? My parents are concerned this will cost a fortune as I'm working over there, not travelling but I'm not sure.

Any other handy hints would be great too! Thanks for the offer- its really reassuring to hear about other people's experiences when they were so positive

x

I'm glad to hear that it has worked out for you! I'm living just outside of Rennes in Brittany with a single mum and two kids of 6 and 12. Although, I never speak English to anyone, the kids don't seem to want to learn either. Aw well, suppose it helps my French. With regards to the travel insurance, I don't actually have any other than the EHIC. Within a week of your arrival in France, by law, you should have signed a contract stating that you were becoming an au pair which then has to be validated by the local social security office. There is an example contract on au pair world that you could use and there should be a clause in it that in the event that you become unwell, the host family will look after you and continue to provide you with accommodation and food until you are better.

This was taken off the website:
"To ensure that the placement of your au pair will officially be recognized in France, you need to sign the au pair contract, officially called "accord de placement" (agreement on placement), together with your au pair and add necessary supporting documents. You need to have it validated by the competent areal unit of the DIRECCTE (body in charge of companies, competence, consumption, employment and work, former supervisory board of work on departmental level) close to your home. The set of documents needs to be validated before your au pair leaves his/her home country or one week upon arrival at your home at the latest. The contract defines your rights and obligations, as well as those of your au pair.

In France, au pairs are covered by health, maternity and accident insurance (for accidents at work) throughout their entire stay as an au pair.

To enable them to benefit from the insurance, you need to register your au pair at your local URSSAF (Unions de Recouvrement des cotisations de Sécurité Sociale et d'Allocations Familiales) as "stagiaire aide familial étranger". The registration should follow within 8 days upon his/her arrival at your home. At registration, you need to ask for a form which you will take along to insure your au pair at the social security (Sécurité Sociale). You also need to obtain the au pair's social security number, which is necessary in case of illness.

Afterwards, you will receive a nominative declaration (déclaration nominative simplifiée (DNS)) from the URSSAF every three months. It will help you calculate the contributions you need to pay on a monthly basis. You only need to pay employers' contributions and these are not deductable for tax purposes.

Although I really don't know how much of this applies to you considering you are not really an au pair, although you could be classed as one?

Any other advice, I'm not really too sure! Moving here was really hard for me, but I have to admit the most difficult thing was the lack of social life to begin with. Although, I have found people now and I'm enjoying myself a lot more!

If you have any questions at all or even want to chat feel free to PM me.

Thanks so much for the long reply glad you're enjoying it I've heard it can get pretty lonely although the au pair before me really recommended language classes and just being pro active in finding friends and remembering there are other au pairs around so hopefully everything should be fine

That half sucks half doesn't suck about the kids not wanting to learn English- in their eyes it's a shame not to benefit but from your point of view your french really will improve- apparently with my family the oldest speaks almost flawless English and the youngest cannot say anything so speaking to them on Skype is going to difficult haha.

Thanks for the offer of PMing I might take you up on that if anything else comes up hope you enjoy the rest of your stay- it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to life in France and I can't wait!

X

Yes, you HAVE to do language classes it's the best way to meet people even if you have to talk to them in French only... My problem was that they didn't start until like a month after I arrived. There's no 'au pair community' here at all, but I'm sure there are loads of au pairs in Paris so you'll have no trouble at all finding them.
I've offered many times to teach them, but they have no interest, I don't mind either way, gives me less work! Lol.
Honestly don't hesitate at all if you're having problems, I've had so many experiences here so far (even those which are not so good) so can probably help you out. Most importantly of all though, just enjoy yourself, you're not there forever so make the most of it! Good luck!

I've aupaired with three families I found on aupairworld, and had one terrible experience (they had told me they had 4 kids and that I'd only have to look after the youngest, when actually there were 7 spoilt brats one of which had a serious anger management problem), one amazing experience (really cool parents and the little boy was sooo sweet and mature for his age, a lot of the time I didn't feel like I was even working because it was so fun), and one mediocre experience (one girl who could be very sweet but very spoilt and hyperactive, the mum was nice but very demanding and slightly crazy, and the hours were waay too much).

As you can see it's kind of a lottery, so IMO the best way would be to come to France and find a family here where you can meet them properly as skype/email isn't really enough IMO. My main piece of advice would be to interview them as much as they interview you. Don't be afraid to ask questions or negotiate, else you run the risk of being taken advantage of.

I'm currently aupairing with a lovely family that contacted me directly, so any questions about aupairing in general, shoot

is this all in one year? why did you change so much? if not, why did you do more than one year?

This is my third year

Hey! I can't really comment on Au Pair World having gone through a different website but from what I've gathered from looking at many au pair blogs is that it seems to be one of the most popular ones to use.

Here's a set of links that will almost certainly be helpful to you: http://aupairabroad.tumblr.com/links

I'm currently living in Germany as an au pair and have been since the beginning of August. If you want to ask me any questions about my au pairing experiences, just PM me.

hey! where are you staying? were there people your age in your language classes?

i don't feel lonely but i am finding it hard to meet people, it's like there is NO ONE my age here! my language classes are just full of older people. i REALLY need to go out!!! i am not lonely liek i said because i can get on with people a lot older than me and i have the family and the people who work here etc. but it would just be nice to meet some people i can do stuff with, is there anything else you recommend?