nursery school or childcare in france

Hi, I know very little about the french system but I will share what I know. it depends on where you move in france, if its in paris then they usually have a cut off registration period, but sometimes they allow you to place your child mid way if you have prove that you just move. in paris they have civil house or mairie, every section of paris has its own. when you go there they will ask you for prove that this is your child or birth certificate, and his insurance, one for his health and for school. as well as a certificate of health, or prove that he has had all of his shots. kids here go to school from 8:20am to 4:30 pm on mon, tue, thur, and fri. wed they have off, so you might want to think about what to do with him on wed. they have a system where you can place them in a nnursery on wed but this is paid.
now here is the most inportant part, kids use to start maternel or pre kinder at 3 years old, but thank the lord it has just been moved down to 2 years old. so you might not be needing that au pair after all.
Regardless I will tell you about au pairs. now I never had one myself, but i had a friend that was one, she had come from brazil and she said that they usually give visas for au pairs for 3 months, this is because after 3 months you would have to keep her and you would have to pay her social security and health insurance and a whole bunch of other things. the pay is minimal, but you have to have a room for her, and you have to feed her, and i believe you have to pay for her to take one course in school. but dont quote me on that.
I hope that helps its all i know for the moment, but if i think of anything else I will let you know.

Adriana

For the two youg ones, you can also have day care ("crèche") but it's very hard (almost impossible) to register in one (French mums usually register their child before it is even born!) or nannys who keep kids at their own place ("assistante maternelle"). That is if you have a job and can't look after them during the day.
As for the elder, adrianamd said all that had to be said.