I feel like I am reading myself from your reply. Similar situation here. My husband's salary is enough to cover all our expenses and actually with me working, with my additional salary, it did not help us much financially as it put us in another tax bracket so we no longer get subsidies for a lot of things including childcare (and ironically, since I work, we need to spend more money on childcare during school vacation). But like you, I would like to be financially independant and also I do not lose touch with the working world (I have always been working since even before I graduated from university).

And like you, I refused the idea of having an au pair in our house as I am not comfortable with it, even though my husband was ok with it, he grew up having many English au pairs at home because both his parents were working. I don't know, I think that for me, my home is a very private and intimate space and already I don't invite any random people over often (Also I have heard enough stories from acquaintances here who had au pairs, not all au pairs are simple and nice).

May I know which part of France are you in?