Bilingual baby scheme praised

A FIRM supplying English-speaking nannies to French families was a finalist for a top innovation prize.

Baby-speaking was selected for the recent Grand Prix de l’Innovation de la Ville de Paris, which rewards companies with bright ideas.

The firm was set up by two new business graduates, Antoine Gentil and Julien Viaud. It offers nannies who are native speakers in certain languages, of which the most popular is English, so as to immerse children in a second language as soon as possible.

The idea came to Mr Gentil after coming back to France from the US, where his family had moved, and considering the fluency and good accents of his younger sisters, who had grown up there.

The firm’s nannies, whether English-speaking, or Russian or Chinese etc, talk to their charges in their own tongue and arrive equipped with games, books and songs.

They can be booked by the hour (from age 0 to 12) or full-time, for activities such as collecting children from school, preparing their goûter snack, playing games, bathing babies etc.

See www.baby-speaking.fr