Our next au pair, Christelle, was what is sometimes called ‘a summer au pair’. We have met her through www.aupair-world.net. She was a French university student and had 3 months free in the summer (June – August). She has caught our attention because her profile was filled in well and she uploaded a nice photo of herself surrounded by young children at some camp. In her profile, she described her interest in spending time with children, improving her English and learning more about Ireland. She had experience in working with children as a young volunteer at a summer camp in Germany. She just sounded like a genuinely nice young girl and we have exchanged several e-mails and a couple of phone calls. I remember that for some reason George had a tantrum while I was trying to talk to Christelle over the phone for the first time. Luckily the crying in the background did not put her off her decision to come.

Her duty was to look after George and Clara during the summer holidays and she has done that quite well. The one small hiccup at the start was that only after 3 days, she has admitted that she did not manage to put on the cooker and therefore George was on a staple diet of cold mushy peas and cold sweet corn! Since then I make sure that each au pair is comfortable with handling our temperamental cooker.

Christelle had an amazing appetite though one would not judge from looking at her figure. She had several substantial meals throughout the day, preferable two warm meals and after dinner, she would have some cheese and bread, truly French! I watched with envy the amount and the type of food she was able to eat without putting on any weight! One Sunday, we were going for a lunch to my mother-in-law and Christelle was staying at home so I said to her to look after herself and make something nice. She was just back from a morning mass and when I asked her what she may cook for herself that day, she told me that she will make some ratatouille. I raised my concern to her that that may not be enough and she, with a big smile, put her hand into her little handbag and took out a huge sirloin steak that she has just purchased in a local supermarket on her way from the church. I knew then that I did not need to worry about her not getting enough food!

She had a great imagination and she often organised special games for the children. Two occasions stand out in my mind. The first one was when she organised ‘Olympic Games’ for them. They had disciplines like throwing wellington boots, jumping in sacks etc. Clara and George enjoyed that so much – especially because Christelle has made medals and prizes for them. Another time she has organised a ‘murder mystery’ game with Clara and her friend. They spent the whole day preparing the story, setting the scene, rehearsing various characters (each had to play at least two roles). When I got home that evening from work, what a surprise it was to find a ‘dead body’ in the bathroom and through a series of interviews which took good two hours, I did my best to find out who was the culprit. The girls were outstanding actresses and they were all such convincing ‘liars’ that I did not manage to solve the puzzle and did not guess who the murderer was. An au pair, who is currently with us, Rebecca, has followed in Christelle’s footsteps recently and she also organised similar ‘murder mystery’ and again, it was a wonderful success. A lot of work goes into the preparation but if you have children, who enjoy this type of games,  it is really worth the effort.

I had an opportunity to meet Christelle again while on a business trip in Paris the following summer. We met in a lovely cafe Angelina on rue de Rivoli near the Westin Paris. The hot chocolate was nice though a little cold for hot chocolate! Till today, more than two years later, the children mention her name from time to time and we try to think of all the fun things that they did together.