Start looking for childcare (mode de garde)
Places go long before you need them, and in the cities they go very early. The usual advice is to start in the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy: register with the crèche through your mairie, and look at assistantes maternelles in parallel rather than after, because a crèche place is never a certainty. Checked against caf.fr on 22 September 2026.
- Who it applies to
- Everyone having a baby in France
- On your timeline
- Paperbump schedules this usually between week 14 and week 20 of the pregnancy
- Official source
- caf.fr
- Last checked
- 22 September 2026
What else to know
What you pay depends on the route you take and on your income, and the CAF helps with both — but that claim comes later, once care has actually started.
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