We are a bilingual German-American-Japanese family living in Lörrach, very close to the borders of Switzerland and France. We are a family of 5, with the older two in school and the youngest in Kindergarten. Both parents are research scientists. We love living in Lörrach because it provides a great combination of outdoor activities (skiing, biking, hiking), nature, and culture. Because of its proximity to Freiburg-Basel-Mulhouse airport and its access to the Frankfurt am Main-Basel railway line, it is also conveniently located for travel within Europe.
We live in a residential region of Lörrach within walking distance to the town center. We live up on a hill, which gives us beautiful views of the sunset and gives us some exercise everyday. Our older two children will be in the local elementary school. They take piano lessons, swim, play soccer. Our youngest child goes to the local kindergarten nearby. We enjoy running, skiing, swimming, hiking in our free time, but we also like to read and watch TV in the evenings.
We both work in the neighboring city of Basel, Switzerland, and we will need help with the pickup of the youngest child from their kindergarten and babysitting until one of us will be home from work (around 5:30pm). Because the kids will be in school or kindergarten for most of the day, this means that you will have most of the day (until ~1:45pm), evenings and weekends for yourself. During this time, you would be free to pursue other activities, including language classes. We would also like some help in keeping our home clean, particularly the kitchen. We live in a 3-story house, and there is a studio apartment for our au pair on the ground floor. This apartment has a separate entrance, a bathroom with shower, and a small kitchen area.