Nobody warns you about relocation week.
You've pictured the apartment, the school, the new life. What you didn't picture is the actual week it takes to get there: movers walking through a home that isn't set up yet, signatures to chase, a bank account to open, a school enrolment that hasn't gone through, and two children who need feeding, sleeping and entertaining through all of it, in a city where you don't yet know a single person you'd trust to watch them.
This is the gap nobody plans for. Long-term childcare, a nanny, a crèche spot, takes weeks or months to arrange in France. But you need help now, for the four or five days when everything else is happening at once.
The relocation gap: too soon for long-term care, too much to handle alone
Most childcare in Paris is built around routine: the same person, the same hours, every week. That's the right model once you're settled. It's completely wrong for moving week.
What you actually need during a relocation is different: a trustworthy person for a few hours here, a full day there, on short notice, for a stretch of two or three weeks until your normal life resumes. That's a real gap in the market, and it's exactly where things go wrong for families, either they have no help at all and try to do everything with children underfoot, or they take the first available person from a listing site with no real vetting because they're desperate.
What you actually need during those first weeks
A few hours while you sign the lease and do the final walkthrough with movers. A full day while you handle the prefecture, the bank, the school registration, all the administrative tasks that require queuing in person and cannot be done with a toddler in tow. An evening to unpack the kitchen in peace after a day when everyone's patience is gone. Someone bilingual, so your child isn't navigating a new home and a new language from a stranger on the same day.
None of this requires a long-term commitment. It requires someone reliable, available on short notice, for exactly the hours you need.
Vetted, even for a one-off booking
This is the part that matters most when you're new to a country and have no way to check someone's background yourself. Every sitter goes through five checks before we ever introduce them to a family: official ID verification, a criminal background check (Bulletin n°3, re-screened every six months), an in-person interview, verified diplomas and references, and first-aid training. Eight out of ten applicants don't make it through.
You shouldn't have to lower your standards just because you're in the middle of a move. A one-time booking gets the same vetting as a regular one. No shortcuts.
How much notice we need
We're honest about this, because relocation is stressful enough without vague promises. Tell us your dates as early as you can, ideally as soon as your moving week is confirmed, and we typically come back to you within 24 to 48 hours with sitter profiles who fit. For a single afternoon or evening, that's usually enough lead time. For a longer stretch, covering the whole first week, the earlier you reach out, the better the match.
A bridge, not a replacement
We're not trying to replace the nanny or the crèche spot you'll eventually organise. We're the bridge: the trustworthy option for the weeks between landing in Paris and having your real routine in place. Some families use us for a single chaotic moving day. Others book us for two or three weeks while they sort out longer-term care. Either way works.
You're not the first family to need this
If you're relocating to Paris, you are, by definition, doing everything for the first time in a new country. Finding trustworthy childcare on your own, from scratch, in a language you may not fully speak, is one more thing on a list that's already too long.
Send us your dates and what you need. We'll take that one off your list.