Bonjour! Welcome to my blog. My name is Ruth, and I am working as an au pair in Paris for a year. This is a dream come true, an opportunity to explore one of the most beautiful cities in the world and get paid while doing it!
An au pair is an international nanny who partakes in a cultural exchange program of exploring another country while living with and providing childcare for a host family in that country. Unlike a nanny, the au pair works under a limited contract and is treated as an extension of the family, not just the hired help. This means most living expenses are covered by the host family, making it an ideal way to get genuine cultural exposure on the cheap.
So how did I end up doing this? Well, there are a couple of other blog posts explaining the whole story, but in short, I found the family through an au pair job board online. It was the ideal solution for a recent college grad searching for ways to travel inexpensively while developing my creative skills.
It was a huge leap of faith for a girl who has never strayed from pursuing the path of American success, but I know that God is calling me to Paris. It took me a long time to believe he would call me to a place I love, after calling me to places I dreaded. And as my parents would say, "The safest place to be is in God's will."
So this blog was born, as Rue (a childhood nickname, and incidentally the French word for "road") begins a life in rose-colored glasses, as the old Edith Piaf song goes (that's the en Rose part). And while I know it won't be all sunshine and roses, all romance and dream-come-trues, I know that this will be the most exciting, adventurous year of my life.
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