Several people commented last week that they would love to hear about my life as an au pair in Geneva. Sadly there isn’t much to tell. I only lasted until Easter and I didn’t keep a diary. I found it a lonely life. My family were pretty good, an English woman married to an Italian man and both working for United Nations in Geneva. I worked long hours from 7am until 7pm with Saturday afternoon and Sunday off for £7 a week. Two young boys aged three and seven. Unfortunately the seven year old was showing signs of distress and bad behaviour. I guess that having different au pairs each year to whom you get attached and then they disappear is not good for a young child.
I was expected to provide a cooked lunch for the family each day, a list of ingredients and a recipe would be left for me and I would walk to the nearest shops for the food. I learned to cook many things that I had never done before including stuffed hearts, artichokes and oxtail. Not your normal Yorkshire grub. I cleaned and I did the laundry. The three-year old was at nursery in the morning and home during the afternoon and I would take him out for a walk, often to collect eggs from a farm close by. Did I mention it was winter? The ground was often covered in snow and it was cold, but a dry cold unlike the damp of an English winter.
I would make tea for the children around 5 pm then bath them and get them ready for bed. I don’t recall any TV. Once a week in the evening I went out for French lessons. And I became friendly with a young English girl in the next block of flats, Lorraine, and I used to go out with her on a Saturday. Sometimes we would visit a live music bar in a cavern in the old town which was pretty good. (Unlike the very few photos I have from that time)
I had a small room to myself in the high rise apartment not too far from the airport and with easy transport links into the city. With a view out to the Alps it was better than my box room in Yorkshire. Saturday mornings would involve an intense cleaning session where dining room chairs were upturned and dusted. Usually it involved a trip to a supermarket and a drive into France (passports at the ready) to buy bottled Avian water.
Some Sundays I accompanied the family to a ski resort in the French Alps where I was left in charge of the little one. I do recall once stepping into snow up to my thighs whilst pulling him along on a sled!
Once I had a weekend away when I visited a girl I had met on my European travels who was working in a ski resort in Les Diablerets at the far end of Lake Geneva. It was an interesting journey there, the last part on a cogwheel train. She also worked long hours, but at least didn’t have to look after young children.
My job came to an end when the mother decided to take a break from work and stay home with her children. So I contacted the son of a friend of my father’s who was teaching in Lyon and happy to give me a lift home as he was going home for the Easter holidays. It was quite funny though, as I was sneaked into his room in the boarding school overnight (most of the pupils had already gone home).
After that I took a job as a white collar worker in a factory in Bradford, living in a minute bed-sit before hitch-hiking to Zurich in September to fill in for another au pair friend whilst she went on holiday. I desperately tried to find work there without success so had to return to England until I could find another job, preferably abroad.
The most surprising thing about living in Geneva? Seeing cockroaches in the kitchen when I came home at night and switched the light on. Apparently they come up though the air vents.
TRAVEL WORDS 
Phew, that sounds like a lot of work and responsibility for not much pay although I suppose you had meals and board included. Cockies in the kitchen are definitely not a welcome sight.
Yes it was just spending money, but it didn’t go far in very expensive Switzerland.
Thanks for sharing your au pair experience and your photos, Jude. I looked up the conversion for your pay and it’s 120 in today’s pounds, so you weren’t making lots and it sounds like a difficult job especially with the seven-year old. And cockroaches in the kitchen? Yikes! Did you eventually find another job abroad?
I did. The following year I had a summer season in a hotel in Norway. Much better than working with children.
That sounds a lot of work! Not what an au pair girls has to do. Perhaps it is different nowadays.
I think an au pair is expected to do all sorts of things unlike a trained nanny who is responsible only for the children. It may be different now of course.
Well, I loved the yarn, till I got to the cockroaches! We sometimes have them here on summer nights and they fill me with revulsion. No wonder you’re such a capable cook. Sounds like you had plenty of practise, Jude. Can’t wait for what comes next! Off to the floral torches procession this morning (the only one I’ve done this weekend). Hope the weather’s a bit brighter? xx
Yes, my cooking skills definitely stem from those days, though I never cooked heart again!
Ugh! xx
Quite a tiring existence without much joy by the sound of it. At least you were able to make the most of your spare time once you found someone to do stuff with.
Cooking new meals would have been challenging at the start no doubt but that would hold you in good stead for the future
A lonely existence too. But yes, the culinary experience has stood me in good stead over the years. Except now. I struggle to cook for one. I can see why it’s easier just to have a sandwich.
I have my moments and always manage to rustle something up making enough for leftover for those times I don’t feel like cooking.
I hope you don’t feel lonely now Jude
I still tend to cook for two or even four as I would freeze half for a time when I wanted an easy meal. But I do have to make an effort. An omelette is an easy meal, but unfortunately I seem to have developed a reaction to eggs – I can at hard boiled ones and those in cakes, but scrambled, omelettes, quiches and my favourite poached eggs are a no no.
I wouldn’t say I am lonely, but I do miss the company in the evening which is when David and I spent most of our time together. And talking to the smart speaker is not quite the same… 😆
Easy eggs are a godsend at times I must agree. Pity that they no longer like you.
I had a lovely couple here over the past two days and it was good to have company in the evening.
I understand the lonely not lonely 🤗
It does sound like a lonely existence. Purple velvet jacket and loons! Those were the days! Though Lorraine, if she’s the young woman on the left, could walk down the street today and not look out of place.
I have always thought the Swiss and the French dress so much more elegantly than we do.
Très chic!
This was an interesting read even if you have no diary to document your stay in more detail. I suspect if you did it might get a bit repetitious, judging by what you say of your life there. But as others have said, the cooking duties will have taught you some useful skills, and you seem to have enjoyed the free time you got while in Geneva. Incidentally, my mother used to regularly cook stuffed hearts for our dinner and I rather liked them. I’m not sure you can even buy them now, although maybe a good butcher would be able to help? But I don’t think I’ll bother!
I vividly remember practising saying the French for meat from the butcher on my walk there. And having to trail down to the basement where the washing machine was located. No lift.
Even in 1972, £7 a week was pitiful pay for such long hours and the responsibility of two children. I doubt £1 a day went very far, especially if you were out socialising. But I am sure it was a worthwhile experience overall, and you got to see ‘real life’ in another country.
Best wishes, Pete. x
And learned that school girl French was not the same as Swiss French 😊
It wasn’t too bad considering I didn’t have to pay for food or accommodation. In Bradford I earned £10 a week and £2.50 was for the bedsit. Fortunately I could walk to the factory.
In 1972 I was a sales rep on almost £1800 a year + a Cortina Estate company car. And I was older than you, though still under 21. But I was travelling away from home all week, and didn’t have to pay my parents much rent for living at home at weekends. x
That was a good salary. The most I earned in then was £60 a month in 1971 which is why I wanted to find a job on London.
It was, and I was working for Rizla, the cigarette paper company. As we had a monopoly, I didn’t actually have to sell anything, just promote the brand with wholesalers and shops. All the sales were done direct with the head office, so my job was very pleasant. x