BEFORE: Other than going to the hairdresser, I’ve never felt such apprehension over such a seemingly small task. Pick up some keys and sit in a school children’s library for an hour and a half. To re-cap, I’m an au pair in Paris and I feel like my “mum” has thrown me in the deep end, because I’ll have to keep an army of mere babes quiet – and they’ll all be speaking French.

Plus – it’s pouring with rain, so there will be nothing else to do in the lunch break other than terrorise the petrified librarian – great, just great. Public speaking to vast crowds – not a problem; solo travel across Siberia – without blinking an eyelid (ok, maybe there was a little batting of damsel in distress eyelashes, but that was just to get across a linguistic divide)… but a room full of French infants…

“Just get your BD and get out of here!”

Gosh, how do I say that in French?

AFTER: Alright… I’ll update this post with the outcome – it wasn’t too bad at all. I was greeted on arrival by some dripping wet boys who announced that I was their saviour (so far, so good) and I said “Bonjour” more that I ever have in my entire time in France thus far. In return, I was greeted as “Madam” more than I ever care to be (gosh, for another decade at least!)

The biggest request I had to deal with was for a pencil or a pen, and in the end, I was guilty of being in league with the biggest noisemaker, a girl of eight-years-old who was determined to read me a story and tell me about all her classmates.