01
Between members, no transaction
Between members, everything happens without a transaction: a service in return for a service.
Mutual aid · Pet sitting · Home sitting
Close to home.
Pet sitting, small favours, the people you meet.
Guardiens connects pet owners with trusted sitters, everywhere in France. In-home house-sitting, local mutual help: your pets stay home, your home stays lived in, and you leave with peace of mind.
And behind every exchange, a connection you weren't looking for.
I need a hand, or I can lend one →Trusted local sitters are waiting near you.
38houses sat
236pets accompanied
1073registered
14mutual aid missions
Live
Available sits
UrgentCognyGarde de Nougat adorable Labrador dans une maison avec extérieur à Cogny / Villefranche sur saône pour Septembre
Aug 27 - Sep 30
MontélégerGarde de chien, Sam un très sympa braque de Weimar
Dec 13 - Dec 30
CézyGarde de trois chiens yonne 89 vers joigny
Oct 1 - Oct 13
SarryPrêt de ma maison avec mon teckel
Sep 1 - Sep 30
What is Guardiens?
Guardiens is a French house-sitting and mutual aid platform between individuals. The idea: a sitter who lives near you moves into your home while you are away and looks after your pets in their own environment. The exchange is built on trust and a real meeting, at no cost for the owner. Guardiens covers all of France.
What we do together
In-home pet sitting and local mutual aid.
Home sitting on one side, mutual aid between locals on the other. You choose, one, the other, or both.
Owners
Leave with peace of mind.
Someone local watches over your home and your pets. You meet them before leaving. You choose.
Between individualsI am looking for a caretaker / pet & home sitter →Caretaker / pet & home sitters
Sit, and discover.
Live in homes, with pets, in corners you would never have explored otherwise. A sit is also a journey.
I want to sit →Between locals
Local mutual aid, independent of sitting
A small favour, an exchange.
Watering a vegetable garden, putting up a shelf, sharing a skill, visiting an isolated person. No sitting, no pet required, just locals helping each other.
Discover mutual aid →Last minute unexpected
A sudden departure?
The Guardiens emergency network is being built with its first members. You can sign up as an available emergency sitter, or post a request near you.
Living abroad? Have someone watch your French home, and vice versa.
Our first sitters are organising. Coming soon in several countries.
You live abroad, look after your French home.
You are travelling abroad, find a local sitter.
What is never written in a listingThe real pretext,
The real pretext,
is the meeting.
What we rarely talk about is what happens around it. Getting to know the local grandmother and her story because you helped her pick her garden fruit. Exchanging with Gerardo while he gives you a small favour with DIY, and offering him a home-made meal in return.
You don't need a pet for a meeting to begin. Asking for a small favour, offering one: it's already opening a door. Sitting a house is opening another, same gesture, two scales.
We learn, we discover, we grow attached, without looking for it. Just by leaving space for what can happen.
For everyone · Between locals
Dare to ask. Dare to propose.
Before, there was someone local who would come by to water the garden, who looked after the dog, who came to fix a shutter. Someone to whom we offered a piece of cake or a small favour in return.
This habit hasn't disappeared, we simply no longer dare to ask the first question. Guardiens is the pretext to ask it again, and along the way, live experiences that no organised trip could offer you.
« I need a small favour »
Your vegetable garden during holidays. Your chickens this weekend. Walking your dog after an operation. Asking for it isn't admitting a weakness, it's trusting.
A service in return for a service. That's the bet.
« I can give a little of my time »
You know how to prune roses. You love dogs. You have two hours on Saturday morning. Propose, and live what you would never have experienced without this meeting.
That is how a local fabric reweaves itself.
A few exchanges seen on Guardiens this week
Watering plants
Small DIY
Garden pruning
Homemade bread class
Reiki session
Collecting a parcel
Appointment carpooling
Cuttings, seedlings
Coffee & listening
Help with shopping
Help with moving
Learning sewing
« Village life hasn't disappeared. It was simply waiting for someone to dare the first question. »
What we've built for you
A living inventory, refreshed on every visit.
Figures updated on August 11, 2026.
70
cities covered
77
breeds documented
1,438
geolocated dog-friendly places
2
pet professionals
Trust & perimeter
Choose with confidence, one mile away or a thousand.
Four benchmarks for peace of mind: a meeting before every sit, documented profiles, cross reviews, and a perimeter you set yourself.
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Meeting before every sit
A coffee, a visit of the accommodation, a tour of the instructions. Trust isn't guessed: it is built, face to face.
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Documented profiles, cross-reviews
Every profile displays reviews published by previous owners and the history of completed sits. An in-person meeting before every sit remains at the heart of trust.
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From your street to the other side of France
Hyper-local for a quick fix, expanded for a change of scenery: you decide how far you want to go. Every sit becomes an opening door.
House-sitting, boarding, pet-sitter: which to choose?
Four options to have your pets cared for while you are away. A factual, judgement-free comparison.
| Solution | Pet stays at home | Home is occupied | Cost for the owner | Human connection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guardiens house-sitting | Yes | Yes, at all times | Between members, no transaction | Prior meeting and mutual reviews |
| Boarding kennel | No, the pet is moved | Not applicable | Paid, daily rate | Professional team on site |
| In-home pet-sitter | Yes | No, occasional visits | Paid, per visit | Professional relationship |
| Care by a relative | Varies | Varies | Usually no fees | Family or friendly relationship |
The match that matters, 7 criteria, not just proximity
An affinity score computed automatically between every owner and every sitter: weighted, transparent, visible.
- Computed automatically as soon as a sitter applies to your listing
- Seven weighted criteria: lifestyle, animals, experience, availability, communication, home preferences, proximity
- You see the details, you decide
Sample match87 % · 6/7
CamilleThéo
- Pets22 %Dog and cat declared, confirmed experience
- Presence during the sit22 %Remote work matching your expectations
- Pace of life11 %Active pace, consistent with the household
- Languages11 %French in common
- Interests11 %Garden, reading, nature
- Ideal profile11 %Matches the kind of caretaker you look for
- Household atmosphere11 %Quiet atmosphere, sportier caretaker
They dared. Here is what they kept.
Testimonials collected from our early members (January to May 2026). Real first names and cities, stories anonymised at their request.
More than 1073 members have already joined the network, all across France, from Valence to Quimper, from Paris to Sète.
Two cats and a dog. We had not taken a real holiday in three years. Our sitter lives ten minutes away. We met over a coffee on the Thursday. We left on the Saturday.
Nadia2 chats, 1 chien · Mérignac (33)
I was looking for a place to stay between two jobs. I sat four houses in two months. I discovered places I had lived next to for ten years without ever really knowing them.
TomasGardien · Grenoble (38)
We have a house in Ardèche that sat empty eight months a year. Now it is alive. The people who look after it send us photos of the garden. It is strange how good that feels.
Rania et DavidMaison de famille · Ardèche (07)
Our story
It all started with a visa.
The habit of opening up to locals has been lost. For lack of a pretext.
Elisa, my partner and co-founder of Guardiens, arrived from Argentina with a visa that didn't allow her to work. She looked after pets. She would come home with stories: people opening their doors, their lives, freely. Strangers who ended up inviting us for Christmas.
One evening, an owner told him:
We never looked after houses. We were invited into lives.
Elisa and I looked after 37 houses in five years, in villages, cities, and hamlets.
That's what the village used to do naturally.
Guardiens is the pretext that was missing. On one side, small favours of mutual aid between local people: a vegetable garden watered in exchange for a meal, one skill for another, a small favour returned in kind. On the other, independently, house-sitting: your keys entrusted to someone you've looked in the eye.
You will leave with peace of mind. You will return with a story. We didn't expect it to matter so much.
That's why we built Guardiens, so you could live this too.
One evening at Helen's, Stanley barking, Rafa lying on our feet, the view over Mont Blanc. We thought: why aren't more people doing this?
That is why we built Guardiens.
Your garden for a meal. Your keys for a story. People from the area who trust each other, and sometimes friends for life.
Jérémie and Elisa
Vets, groomers, trainers, verified by Guardiens
A local directory of pet professionals. SIRET documents are analysed automatically, and files that do not pass this first check are reviewed by the team. The badge indicates a validated SIRET.
Guides & cities
House-sitting near you.
Concrete guides to prepare your sit, and local hubs for the most active cities, Lyon, Annecy, Grenoble, and all over France.
Guides & advice
Prepare your sit
- Leaving with a pet: the guide to 8 situations in 2026
- Long holidays: having your pet looked after for 2 weeks or more
- Alternatives to dog boarding: 5 solutions to leave with peace of mind
- Pet sitting in Savoie: the complete guide
- Pet sitting in Haute-Savoie: the complete guide
- Dog and cat sitting in Croix-Rousse: local specifics
- French expats: having your home in France looked after during your absence
- Expats: having your home abroad (Bali, Lisbon, Marrakech...) looked after by a French sitter
House-sitting by city
Near you
- House-sitting in Lyon. Sitters in every district, from Vieux Lyon to Croix-Rousse, via Part-Dieu and Confluence.
- House-sitting in Annecy. Lake, mountains, second homes in Haute-Savoie. Local sitters familiar with the frost, access roads and vets.
- House-sitting in Grenoble. At the foot of Vercors, Chartreuse and Belledonne. Sitters familiar with the valley and Bastille trails.
- House-sitting in Villeurbanne. At the gates of Lyon, Gratte-Ciel, Charpennes, Cusset. Sitters who move easily between the two cities.
- House-sitting in Chambéry. Capital of Savoie, between Lake Bourget and the Bauges massif. Sitters at ease with mountains and winter.
- House-sitting in Valence. Gateway to the south, between Rhône and Vercors. Sitters close to holiday routes and second homes in the Drôme.
- House-sitting in Écully. Residential western Lyon, houses with gardens and pets. Sitters used to quiet, family properties.
- Everywhere in France. From the Basque Country to Brittany, via the Alps, Provence and the North. The network extends across all regions.
See all listings
Whatever your department, you will find a sitter nearby.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is house-sitting?
House-sitting is a service exchange: a caretaker / pet & home sitter lives free of charge in your house during your absence and takes care of your pets. The exchange involves no financial transaction between the two parties.
Do I have to pay to register as an owner?
Registration, listing publication and exchanges with sitters are subscription-free for owners. No credit card required. Guardiens stays free as long as we are not satisfied with the service we offer you. You have full access, no limits, no commitment.
How can I find a pet sitter near me?
Register on Guardiens, publish your sitting listing with dates and your pets, and receive applications from caretaker / pet & home sitters who live near you. You choose after a meeting.
Who are the sitters on Guardiens?
Local people. Identity verification is open to every member, and validated profiles display the « Identity verified » badge. Trust is built on the in-person meeting held before every sit, on cross-reviews published after each experience, and on the history visible on every profile.
How does a sit take place on Guardiens?
You publish your listing, local caretaker / pet & home sitters apply, you choose after a meeting, then your sitter moves in. An optional sitting agreement frames the commitments of each party during the sit.
Is Guardiens available everywhere in France?
Yes. The Guardiens network extends to all regions of France, from the Basque Country to Brittany, through the Alps and the North. You will find a sitter near you regardless of your department.
What is the Guardiens business model?
Guardiens stays free as long as we are not satisfied with the service we offer you. You get access to everything, with no limit and no commitment. You will be told in advance when that changes.
Is house-sitting safe?
Identity verification is open to every member: the document sent in is analysed automatically, files that do not pass this first check are reviewed by our team, and validated profiles display the « Identity verified » crest. A meeting between the owner and the sitter before the stay is strongly recommended. After each experience, the cross reviews published on the profile build a verifiable reputation, visible to all members.
Tips
Alma's tips
I gather here practical guidance on pets, the home and the seasons. Nothing theoretical: just useful tips for your daily life.
Home
Le robot nettoyeur gère bien l'entretien courant. Sortez-le une fois son cycle fini, videz et rincez son filtre. Ça préserve le moteur et l'eau reste plus propre.
Season
Pensez à vermifuger votre animal avant les vacances, la chaleur active les parasites.
Breeds
Malgré sa petite taille, le Chihuahua a un fort caractère et un vrai attachement à sa personne de référence. Il aime la chaleur et frissonne vite quand il fait frais.
Community help
L'entraide entre membres n'est pas un service au rabais. Quelqu'un de confiance qui passe nourrir votre chat un soir d'imprévu, ça vaut de l'or. Décrivez le besoin, même pour une heure.
Home
Le pH et le chlore se règlent selon les consignes des propriétaires. En cas de doute sur les dosages, mieux vaut les contacter que d'ajuster au hasard.
Home
Une eau qui se trouble ou vire au vert signale souvent un déséquilibre. Prévenez les propriétaires. Ce genre de souci demande un traitement adapté, pas seulement le robot.
Your next story begins here.
You will leave with peace of mind. You will return with something else, a discovered corner, a meeting, someone you would never have crossed paths with.
Registration in 2 minutes, no credit card required.
How does it work?
Post your listing now. A trusted sitter near you will look after your home and pets while you are away.
Publish your listing
Your dates, your pets, your house. A few minutes are enough, your listing is online.
Choose after a meeting
Local caretaker / pet & home sitters apply. You read profiles, reviews, you chat. Then you meet, a coffee, a visit, before deciding.
Leave with peace of mind
Once the sitting agreement is signed, your sitter moves in. You receive news. You return home, often with a new relationship.
Registration in 2 minutes