Hi Paris Experts,
My daughter and family will be in Paris for a week beginning Dec.27, with children aged 3 and 7, staying in an apartment on Square Gardette in the 11th. Mom and 7 yr old are Canadians with fluent French. Can anyone suggest a reliable babysitter or service to allow parents a day and/or evening out (not the 31st)? How much is it likely to cost? Thanks!---Janice

How about contacting the Canadian Embassy in Paris

I know the American Embassy has lists of lots of services like this.

Practical: Childcare, Babysitting - ..
Paris, France: Childcare, babysitting and nanny services, child care, professional babysitters, full/part-time, cost of a childcare, Practical - Expat in ...
http://www.easyexpat.com/paris_en/pr...abysitting.htm

It was 8 years ago(!), but we used "Ababa," a babysitting service that we were very pleased with. They promised an English speaking girl, and I would say her English skills were on a par with my French skills. But that was more than enough for our 2 and 4 year olds.

We got the same girl (a college student, very sweet) both times we went out. Back then we paid about $8/hour plus a $10 company fee. We also paid for her taxi both times since we got in after the Metro stopped running.

Here's their info - I don't know if(but would hope) they are still around. Ababa 8 avenue du Maine 75015 Paris tél : 33 (0)1 45 49 46 46

Here's a list - not sure how current it is. http://www.paris-tourisme.com/kids/babyus.html

Thanks for the great suggestions!

With people (teenagers) you know, it is common to pay 10€ an hour. I expect a babysitting service will charge considerably more.

And of course taxi money...

Thanks, kerouac. That's the kind of info I was hoping to get on baseline cost, along with PalenQ's suggested website.

You might want to take a look at the ads in FUSAC (www.fusac.fr)-- lots of North American exchange students look for that kind of work with ex-pat families.

I haven't used one so couldn't recommend one from experience, but I attended a Catholic university in Paris and they have a jobs office for students and have a lot of babysitting jobs (L'INstitut Catholique). They also have jobs where the babysitter picks the child up after school and then plays or oversees homework for a couple hours, that is a common need -- in any case, they recommend parents pay around 8 euro an hour for that (these are 2009 rates).

I've also seen other agencies that charge only around 7.50 euro for the babysitter, but then an agency fee which varies depending how much you use them. So if you paid a monthly agency fee, you can call them whenever you need a sitter that month, for example. Anyway, for a single use, that may add on 10 euro to the babysitter's fee.

There are a couple agencies, which are similar to Ababa:

http://www.auparadisdespetits.com

http://www.babychou.com/

Babychou has a special section if you are in a hotel, and they charge 16 euro agency fee plus 8 euro an hour for the sitter. They also have an English webpage, not sure if others do. I don't think Ababa exists any more, but I'm not sure. It's not in the phonebook.