Working as an Au Pair in a Ski Resort

The au pair route into a ski season is distinct from private nannying and crèche work. An au pair lives with and is treated as part of the family — their own bedroom in the family's chalet or apartment, shared family meals, and a relationship that sits somewhere between employee and household member. That distinction changes the financial structure, the social dynamic, and what the arrangement actually looks like day-to-day.

What an Au Pair Does

The traditional au pair arrangement: you provide approximately 25–35 hours per week of childcare and light household assistance — tidying children's areas, handling children's laundry, preparing children's meals — in exchange for accommodation, all meals, a weekly pocket money allowance, and typically a ski pass.

In a resort context this usually means: morning routine with children while parents ski, daytime activities (arts and crafts, local activities, snowplay, museum visits in the valley), cooking children's dinner, and sometimes accompanying children to ski school. The exact split varies considerably by family.

The skiing time available to you depends entirely on the family's schedule. Some families actively structure the arrangement to give the au pair free afternoons on the mountain — they value having a refreshed, happy au pair more than maximum coverage hours. Others don't build this in, and you need to negotiate it explicitly before you commit. Ask directly: "What does a typical weekday look like? When would I have time to ski?" before signing anything.

The Ski Pass

The lift pass is typically included as part of the compensation package, and this is the significant financial advantage of the au pair arrangement. A full-season pass at a major French or Austrian resort costs €800–1,500 purchased independently. When that's included in your package, the financial comparison with a standard salaried job shifts substantially — a salaried resort worker earning €1,400/month who pays €200/month for accommodation and €1,000 upfront for a ski pass is in a different position than it first appears.

When comparing au pair arrangements to resort employment, factor the ski pass value into your calculation. A family offering €90/week pocket money plus accommodation, meals, and a season pass is offering a more competitive total package than the raw pocket money figure suggests.

Pay

Au pair pocket money in France is set by convention rather than legal minimum wage — typically €80–100 per week net, approximately €320–400 per month. This is below the SMIC (French minimum wage) and is legal because the accommodation and meals value is considered part of the total compensation under the cultural exchange framework the arrangement operates within.

The net financial picture is easier to assess once you list what you're not paying for: rent, utilities, food. A seasonaire paying €500/month for shared accommodation and €300/month on food is spending €800/month before any discretionary spending. An au pair paying none of those costs keeps a much higher proportion of their pocket money — even though the headline number looks lower than a bar or chalet job's monthly salary.

Finding Positions

Family placement platforms — Au Pair World, Au Pair Link, Cultural Care Au Pair, Great Au Pair — operate year-round, with French resort area postings concentrated in September and October for a December start. Val d'Isère, Courchevel, Méribel, and Morzine families all post regularly through these platforms.

Direct contact through seasonaire Facebook groups is also effective. Families based in resort areas often post directly in groups dedicated to specific resorts or regions rather than going through agencies — worth checking the groups for your target resort from September onwards.

If you're going through an agency, check whether they charge placement fees, what support they offer if a placement breaks down, and whether they have a process for verifying families before you commit.

Is It the Right Fit?

Au pairing works well for people who genuinely enjoy children's company day-to-day, who want the accommodation security of a family arrangement (no scramble for shared housing before the season), who value the included ski pass, and who are comfortable with the blurred boundary between work time and personal time that comes from living with your employer.

It doesn't work well for people who need a clear separation between work and life, who find sustained children's company draining, or who want maximum social independence. Living with a family constrains evening schedules in ways that shared staff accommodation doesn't — you won't be slipping out at 10pm without consideration for the household.

The social isolation risk is real and worth taking seriously. A standard resort job puts you in a staff house with other seasonaires from day one — the social network builds quickly. As an au pair you're building that network more deliberately, from scratch, in your free time. If that matters to you, factor it in.

Working Rights

The au pair arrangement is technically classified as cultural exchange rather than employment in most EU countries. This has visa implications: au pairing may be accessible to UK nationals in France under the cultural exchange categorisation without requiring the PVT working holiday visa that standard employment needs.

The current position on this changes, so verify directly with the French embassy or the French consulate in your home country before committing to a position. See our France visa guide for the broader picture on working in French resorts post-Brexit.