Champs Elysées Christmas Market

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Or if, like me, you loathe crowded spaces and shopping its time to get your game face on and reluctantly trudge around desperately trying to find something to take home for Christmas. This is made all the more difficult by the fact that your whole family wants something "from Paris", a city famed for luxury and chic, and your au pair wages just won't cover a Chanel coat for everyone.

The one upside to this time of year is that is more or less acceptable to consume hot alcoholic beverages in public at anytime after midday under the ruse of 'being festive". This helps to take the edge off the dreaded christmas shopping stress to the point where elbowing strangers in the stomach to get to the last box of macarons is almost bearable.

So in the spirit of christmas, and drunken public disorder, have you checked out the Christmas Market on Champs Elysées?

La Vie Est Belle - Clinique Repairwear

You may remember about a month ago I turned 26. I wrote a post about being an older au pair. Well here is one of the things they don't warn you about having your mid-twenties crisis - you start thinking about whether your moisturiser has anti-ageing properties.

Then you start investing night cream.

It's all downhill from here.

La Vie Est Belle - Sephora Poudre exfoliante métamorphose

Ok, so you knew it was coming. How can a girl write a beauty post from France and not mention SEPHORA?

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas in Paris

Well, it's time to admit to my addiction.

An Au Pair Out And About: Hôtel des Invalides, Musée de l'Armée

After the attentats that struck Paris, I decided to go on a temporary hiatus. It is very difficult to write about life in Paris when almost every day is overshadowed by such extraordinary events. Two weeks after the events, the whole of France watched as President Hollande delivered his address to the nation, commemorating those who had been killed alongside some of the families involved. He made this address from Hôtel des Invalides, a place filled with military symbolism for France. Some people in France criticised the choice of location, the talk of being at war, and the politicisation of his actions. I feel ill-equipped to discuss the politics of the situation here, as I am not as well versed in French politics as I should be by now. I however, went to Les Invalides just before the attacks happened for a look around, and thought I would share a few things

Nous Sommes Tous Parisiens.

I don't really know how to begin.

I have written and rewritten this so many times. Sometimes I want to make it funny, to try and lighten the mood. Sometimes I am angry. Sometimes I am so sad that typing the words brings tears to my eyes. Sometimes I feel as though my opinion is so insignificant in the great scheme of things that I shouldn't post at all. Sometimes I feel that it would be dishonest, considering the purpose of this blog is document my time in Paris, not to write about it. Most of the time I am so confused I don't know how to put the words down. So I will just write what I can see, what I can feel, and what I hope.

Image Credit - Jean Jullien (@jean_jullien )

Turning 26 - I'm an old au pair.

So yesterday I turned 26. Yes, the slow descent to 30 has begun. With the vast majority of au pairs being in their late teens and early 20s, I find myself firmly in the category of older au pairs. There's not much in life that you can be 'too old for' at 26, but au pairing can sometimes feel like one of them.

I have no sarcastic comment - this was a genuinely nice cake made for me by the kids.

Money Matters - How much is an au pair worth?

Money. No-one likes talking about it.

No-one ever said that being an au pair was a way to get rich quick. Yes you are paid, but part of your payment comes in the form of your bed, food, and use of the washing machine. While this is amazing and incredibly generous on behalf of the family, it is difficult to convert into cold hard cash. In a city like Paris, where life is pretty expensive, that can be a problem for a young person who wants to see it all. I was getting by on my payments, not seeing everything, but seeing at least one interesting thing a week, when I got a shock.

On one of my last blog posts, someone mentioned that they felt I was being underpaid for the amount of work I do. A quick survey of other au pair friends and colleagues on my French course confirmed that I was being paid at least 5€ less a week than anyone else, in some cases 10€ less. That's when I finally sat back and thought about money seriously.

An Au Pair Out And About: Hallowe'en Special! Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle

It's Hallowe'en! And to celebrate here is a special spooky edition of An Au Pair Out And About - Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle! How is a natural history museum spooky? Well I'm specifically going to be looking at les Galeries d'Anatomie comparée et de Paléntologie - aka the bone rooms!

Bonjour. My name is Pierre, and I am your hell hound guide for today...

La Vie Est Belle: Klorane Shampooing Sec à l'ortie

Ok, I have said this before but it bears repeating. I am all about minimal effort when it comes to beauty products. There are very few products that I think are essential products that I would use everyday. A face-wash, a good moisturiser, brown mascara and a concealer are my everyday products. I can get quite happily by with just them, and one other thing.

Dry shampoo.

I love dry shampoo. It is a godsend. Anyone who has fine or oily hair knows that there is nothing more disheartening than waking up the day after your shower and your hair is already lank at the roots. I have tried several brands, to varying success. I am a big fan of Batiste original formula, but find the added volume version too sticky and the overly fragranced versions overwhelming. Here in France I have been unable to find Batiste. I was using Timotei Pure which I bought from the local supermarché, but it was very heavy and left me looking grey and flat. But now I have discovered Klorane.

The Au Pair Weight Loss Plan

Do you want to look good next summer when you head down to the French Riviera? Or perhaps you were thinking of taking another au pair position next year, further from the city, and closer to the sea. If so then you will be wanting to get in shape and loose a few kilograms. Well with the new "Au Pair Weight Loss Plan" you can get ready for next summer. I used to go to the gym every day and saw slow results, but I have been following the diet for two months and have dropped two dress sizes. Read on to find out more

Yes, you really can eat pastry on the Au Pair Weight Loss Plan

Holiday Hell and the frustrations of being an Au Pair.

So by now most of you have been au pairs for at least 1 month. You dealt with La Rentrée and you've finally sussed out what the kids like and do not like to eat. You've got your Navigo, and you've finally mastered enough french to get what you need. You have perfected the Parisian street style (black trainers, dark jeans, trench coat, scarf) and can walk with enough speed and confidence for people to believe you're local, or at least not try to drag you into their restaurant. You think you have it sussed. But now you are halfway through the first set of holidays, you have been working a 60 hour week entertaining the children while the parents are at work, and you've definitely caught some kind of illness from one of the kids. You are ready to scream. What has happened? Get ready for the rant...

This week I am feeling a lot of sympathy with the horses on the carrousel at the Jardins d'Acclimitation - going round and round in circles. 

Fortnight of au pair hell begins

This Monday morning I got up, dressed and went to breakfast. Unlike most mornings, I was not greeted with the sound of fighting over cereal, or the microwave pinging as it churns out porridge. The kitchen was dark, and the dad was getting ready for work without being harassed for apple juice or goodbye kisses. But do not be fooled by this illusion of calm, dear reader. The children were asleep, and as I write this are STILL asleep, but they are merely resting in preservation of the two weeks of hell that is about to descend on all the au pairs in Paris today.

A beautiful sunrise to start the week

An Au Pair Out & About: Père Lachaise Cemetery

Ok, so for this edition of An Au Pair Out & About we are going with a classic Parisian tourist spot - Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (Père Lachaise Cemetery). If you aren't afraid of graveyards and have excellent map reading skills, this can be a fun and interesting way to spend an afternoon.

My first month as an au pair - What I have learnt.

So my first month with the family is up. It's been a mad month, and I have learned a lot. To recap what has happened, here is a list of the 30 things I have learned during my first 30 days as an au pair

Coffee is BAE

La Vie est Belle- Evian le Brumisateur spray.

Yep, it's time for another French Beauty product review. This week i'm looking at Evian le Brumisateur Spray. 

This type of spray is incredibly popular in French pharmacies. Brands such as La Roche-Posay, Avène, and others market these as miracle sprays that can do anything from set make up to healing scars. It is also a cult favourite amongst beauty bloggers and youtube reviewers. I'm going to take a look at Evian's version, which I found at my local supermarché for 3€.

An Au Pair Out & About: Les Jardins Albert Khan.

Last weekend was les Journées du Patrimonie. These heritage days allow Parisians, and those in the many small villages outside of Paris the opportunity to go behind the scenes of buildings that are normally off limits or to enter local landmarks for free. I took the opportunity to visit Musée Albert-Kahn. I was joined by fellow British au pair Lucie for a free look at this unusual and beautiful place.

Beware: This is an image heavy post.

So you've come down with the Au Pair Rhume...

1 month into your stay with the family, and you feel a bit tired. The initial adrenaline rush of living in a new city and a new country is starting wear off. Every morning you get up early to prepare breakfast. You hate rushing to school, and the weather has been changeable so you've been caught in more rain showers than you can count. The kids have been at school and mixing with other children, and have had a few sniffles or tousse. You've been running yourself ragged trying to pick up toys and get out to see Paris through the day. You must be feeling pretty tired right now, like you could go to bed and sleep for a full 24hrs... and is that a tickle in your throat?

You might have caught le rhume d'au pair!

Sources (i.e. facebook, Whatsapp, twitter, and word of mouth) reveal that several au pairs in Paris have succumbed to the condition and so here is your guide to surviving this unfortunate (but almost unavoidable) condition.

Where did the time go?

Alors! Bonjour! Ça fait longtemps!

Well I'm sorry for the lack of updates. It turns out that looking after children is incredibly time consuming. So is trying to adjust to a new country.

So what has happened since I last checked in?

Well, I've stepped on this about 100 times for a start....

La Vie est Belle - Nuxe rêve de miel lip balm

Bonjour! It's time for another French beauty post. This time I'm looking at a cult beauty classic by Nuxe - rêve de miel lip balm.

La Rentrée

Bonjour from Paris! I am finally here! I hope you understand the lack of updates over the last fortnight - you can probably guess I was very busy!

I arrived last Friday at Charles de Gaulle airport just outside Paris where my new family was waiting to meet me (with a home-made banner - how cute). Despite a horribly early start, there were no problems during travel, and I managed to unpack a year's worth of clothes in one afternoon. I immediately took photographs of the Kitchen, because you can see la tour Eiffel from the window. After 3 nights the light show late at night is still beautiful to me.

La tour Eiffel from the kitchen

I have spent my time here so far out in Paris with the family, enjoying the last few days of the summer holiday. This has been accompanied by a heatwave in Paris - temperatures reaching above 30 degrees celsius. Considering I mostly packed for the upcoming Autumn, I not only found myself short on chic floaty dresses, but have also treated the Parisians to the sight of a very red-faced, overheated Brit who has spent the summer in Wales and the English countryside where the temperature barely made it over 20 degrees. How nice for them.

Hiding from the heat on the balcony - not a bad view.

However, last night it rained and this morning there are grey clouds over la tour Eiffel. There is a slight chill in the air, and the streets that had been mostly deserted except for some very tanned teenagers and a few old ladies with dogs are now filled with business men in suits and chic women with portfolios and silk scarves. This is the beginning of La Rentrée.

La Rentrée is the name given to the 'back to school period' in France, though it is much more than that. In August, many parts of France shut down almost entirely. Not only are the schools and government AWOL (as they are in the UK), but many shops, businesses and restaurants close as well. This means that some parts of Paris can feel a little bit dead, as not only are the businesses closed but many families leave the oppressive heat of the city for family homes in the countryside. Paris si mostly left to a few families, some pigeons, and a lot of hot and sweaty tourists.

This morning, my family's mum and dad (Teresa & Marc) have left for work. However, the children do not start back at school until tomorrow, so my first official day of work is going to be pretty intense! The eldest (Nina) has a music exam at 18:00, but the rest of the day I have to entertain them without giving in to their demands to watch the television.

Wish me luck!

x

Allons-y!

By the time you are reading this I will be boarding a plane from London Heathrow to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

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Packing

This was going to be a joke about how little you can fit in a suitcase -
then I became REALLY worried

I hate packing. I've always been somewhat 'scatter-brained', and I can guarantee that I will forget something. This has led to me making lists upon lists of things to pack. The result is that I have lots of lists, and not much time left to actually do the packing, let alone go out and buy anything I've forgotten. If there's one talent that I possess above all others it is procrastination.

But that's just regular packing, the sort one does for a holiday or long weekend. If you are off as an au pair (or any long term stay) packing is a whole other ball game.

La Vie est Belle: My First Beauty post - La Roche-Posay

I have an admission to make. At twenty-five I am utterly clueless about beauty products and makeup. Not to mention totally useless. Yes, I am ashamed.

Why is this? Well I grew up in the countryside and I spent a good deal of my time on rain- and windswept hillsides in England and Wales, where anything short of tattooing my eyeliner on couldn't have held it in place. Second of all I went to a quite strict girls' school where even a hint of concealer was forcibly scrubbed off by the school nurse. Thirdly I've never really bothered. Don't get me wrong, I am by no means a natural beauty and I'm not vain enough to think that I 'don't need' makeup. What I AM is lazy and unwilling to sacrifice the extra five minutes in bed to put mascara on my bleary eyes. I never spent the hours as a looks-obsessed teen practicing my technique and now in my mid-twenties the thought of trying to perfect my eyeliner wings seems like a chore rather than a part of my morning ritual (which actually involves about nine cups of tea...).

But what better place to try and get to grips with all things beauty than in Paris? The origin of some of the world's great beauty brands and home of some of the most chic and beauty savvy people in the world. So I'm going to post a few reviews of some of the French brands I think you have to try. Most will be available in the UK, or at least over Amazon. Some may be a little more difficult to source, but they will be worth it!

So here we go - my first ever French beauty review of La Roche-Posay

Apologies for the rubbish photo quality - taken on my phone during a thunderstorm.

Au Pair Reads: Almost French: A New Life In Paris - Sarah Turnbull

I hope this will become a recurring feature. I want to review books that may be helpful or insightful for an au pair in Paris (or France more generally).

There are no shortage of books for people who have the desire to up sticks and make a home for themselves in France. Yet these books tend to focus on those who have both the means, and the luxury of time, to renovate quaint farm houses in the south of France. They know that they have years of warmth and sunshine in which to make their mistakes. This is not the case for au pairs. Au pairs have a maximum stay of 12 months on the stagiaire aide familial étranger and every minute not spent speaking French or trying to absorb chic by osmosis is a minute wasted. The easiest way to get around this is by reading the tales of those who have gone before you.

So I will be highlighting books which may be the most useful for you as an au pair on your placement. I am not looking at any particular genre - travel guides, travel writing, language books, poetry, and prose. If it will help you make sense of French life, I will read it and review it. So, let's start with:

Almost French: A New Life In Paris - Sarah Turnbull.

So you want to be an au pair?

Look. I am no expert on the matter. I have not yet been an au pair. I am, if you like, an au pair in waiting. That being said, I have already had several people reach out to me via twitter and tumblr with questions about how to go about finding your au pair placement, and I think I have a few insights which may be worthwhile considering. So let me take you through the stages I went through when selecting my au pair position, and how to avoid the pitfalls and problems that can crop up. Get ready for a long post...

Expectations

Reality

À quelle heure part le prochain vol pour Paris?

Ah! My first term at law school. I am going to get a Graduate diploma in Law (GDL) under my belt, where it will join my MA and BA. I am taking control of my life. I am ready for the real world. I have been offered an internship at the EU commission and am discussing it at a conference for students going to Brussels at my university...