Child care in Lyon

Hi! I'm posting rather late....but who knows, you may not have had the answers to your questions yet.

Traditional public French-speaking day care in Lyon depends on where you live: you have to enroll your child in your "arrondissement" (district) of residence. Depending on the district, all applications are centralized in the "Mairie d'arrondissement" (district town hall). In other districts, you have to apply directly to the daycare of your choice (within your district).  Know that either way, you often have to do it months ahead of time. A lot of families get turned down, for there are very few openings and so many applications. The cost depends on the family's income, and you can also get financial help from CAF). This is by far the cheapest way to have your kids looked after. Most open 7:30-18:30-19h. All staff are trained and certified.

For private (and sometimes bilingual) daycare, I'm sure there are some, but I can't help you with them. You would have to apply directly. They will be more expensive than the public ones, but probably easier to get into (?) I don't know about the staff's training or certification, but I'm thinking they must be, to run a crèche, even private.

Depending on how old your children are, you should also know that apart from "crèches" (described above), there are a few international/bilingual nursery schools (écoles maternelles) in Lyon who accept kids from 2 on (provided they are reliably clean): I suggest you google "écoles bilingues Lyon": the Chamber of Commerce has put together a great document indexing and describing all international education resources and facilities in the region.  To give you a few names: Le Petit Monde (7e), Ombrosa The Nursery (Caluire and 6e), Junior/New School (8e). Wespoint (Collonges)... Getting into them is a lot easier than crèches. Some will enroll your child as long as you pay. Others will have a maximum number of students they won't go over. Their cost ranges from 400-600 euros a month (food and before-and-after class child sitting 7:30 -18or 18:30)

Hope I was of some help. Feel free to contact me if you have further questions.

Julie

Hi Julie!

Thanks a lot for your help

Armand

You're more than welcome Armand. Have you chosen a daycare for your child(ren) since you posted your message?