Meet Our Intended Parents
Explore these heartfelt stories of families hoping to grow
Meet Arthur & Mathieu
Location: Paris, France
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Our names are Mathieu and Arthur. We live together in Paris and have been a couple for over 4 years, having met through mutual friends. We got married on June 3, 2023, surrounded by family and friends, on an island in the middle of a lake near Paris. It was love at first sight from the moment we met, and we’ve been together ever since. We knew instantly that we’d spend the rest of our lives together, and we know how lucky we’ve been, because it doesn’t happen to everyone.
We’re delighted to share our story and our deep desire to start a family with you!
A few words about Mathieu
I’m 31 years old and was born and raised on the Côte d’Azur, in Nice. My parents still live there, while my one-year-old brother and I live in Paris, which allows me to see him very regularly. We’re very close, and he’ll be a great uncle!
I did most of my studies in Paris, especially my business school. As soon as I finished my studies, I joined the Ministry of the Economy in Paris, where I spent 4 years analyzing various public policies such as public transport.
Then, over a year ago, I left the Ministry of the Economy to join the cabinet of the Minister of Justice, where I am advisor in charge of budgetary and real estate issues. I manage the Ministry of Justice’s budget in France (around €10 billion a year), as well as the construction of courthouses and prisons.
Aside from work, Arthur and I are very close and spend most of our free time together. During the week, we often have dinner with friends or in restaurants. At weekends, we enjoy a second home in the countryside near Paris, where we enjoy space, peace and greenery. We go cycling, gardening, have lunches and dinners in the garden, and so on. This hybrid living environment – Parisian and stimulating on the one hand, and green and peaceful on the other – will be perfect for a child’s development.
A few words about Arthur
I’m 36 years old. I was born and raised in Burgundy, surrounded by vineyards. My parents still live in Burgundy, but are retired. My father Jean-Pierre was an advertising photographer and my mother Nicole a math teacher before joining my father’s company to help him grow. I have an older brother Johann, who also lives in Paris, and an older sister Djamilla, who lives in Lyon. I’m lucky enough to have four wonderful nephews: Alexis, 14, Chloé, 12, Loïse, 5, and Léo, 3. I’m very close to them, trying to spend as much time with them as possible. I’m lucky enough to live just a 10-minute walk from my brother, so I’ve been watching my nephews grow up week after week for almost 15 years! My brother and his wife each drew up a will asking me to take on the guardianship of the children if they are still minors and something were to happen (touch wood that this never happens, but it’s a nice vote of confidence and illustrates my closeness to Alexis and Chloé!). In fact, we regularly host them for the weekend, whether in Paris or in the countryside.
Thanks to my Swiss-born father, I’m lucky enough to have dual nationality: I’m Franco-Swiss. Some of my family still live in Switzerland, and I visit them from time to time.
I started my studies in Lyon, before finishing them in Paris, where I was lucky enough to join a prestigious business school, ESSEC Business School. I’ve been working for almost 14 years now, which doesn’t make me any younger… I’m passionate about the world of real estate, and I’m General Manager of a coworking startup called Myflexoffice, where I manage around thirty employees. I work a 10-minute walk from our apartment, which is a real luxury in Paris. So I mainly get around on foot or by bike.
Our life together
We both work in Paris. It’s an incredible city, and we know how lucky we are to live in the heart of one of the world’s most beautiful capitals. Since COVID and the rise of telecommuting, and after 15 years in Paris, we’ve been able to adapt our lifestyle: we now spend 3 days a week in the countryside, in a house we recently bought. This allows us to recharge our batteries and get back in touch with nature. So we commute between Paris and the countryside every week between Thursday evening and Monday morning, by train (it takes an hour, which is very convenient!).
This hybrid lifestyle allows us to enjoy both Parisian life and the quieter moments of the weekend.
Now we spend our weekends gardening, walking in nature, cycling,
swimming in the lakes… This environment will be perfect for a child’s development. We’re also lucky enough to have lots of friends and family who come to visit us every weekend. We take the opportunity to show them our beautiful countryside and have great meals together!
We’re also great travelers. Together, we’ve already been to several European countries (Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, etc.) as well as Asia (Thailand, Cambodia). Mathieu has a passion for Italy and Italian gastronomy, and we regularly go to Italy, which is close to Nice.
Mathieu loves history and châteaux, and we regularly visit them in the Ile-de-France region and the Loire Valley!
In terms of personality, we’re both very easy-going, sociable, dynamic, laughing and caring. We have very similar personalities and complement each other well, which also explains our strong complicity as a couple. We like the same things, sharing the simple pleasures of life: spending time with family, entertaining friends in the countryside, spending time in contact with nature, gardening, but also traveling.
We do have one real difference: Mathieu is always active, he can’t stay still (it’s impossible for him to spend 1 hour reading on the sofa), he’s almost hyperactive! Arthur, on the other hand, is calmer and knows how to take advantage of rest periods to read or watch Netflix.
Our desire to start a family
We’ve both always wanted to start a family. It was very difficult for us to admit our homosexuality, because when we were younger we thought it would destroy our chances of having children one day. It wasn’t an easy time, and it was hard to accept.
Then, over the years, we were able to research and understand that it was possible to have a family while being homosexual. It was a fabulous revelation for us! When we met, we knew right away that we were going to spend our lives together, and that starting a family would be at the heart of our future lives. Our desires are totally aligned when it comes to founding our family.
We’ve taken advantage of our first 4 years together to get to know each other better, travel, spend time with our respective families and friends… Today, we’re ready to embark on this great adventure.
There’s nothing more beautiful in life than the desire to start a family. It’s a dream that resonates within us. It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe, but for us, it’s the promise of unconditional love that will grow day by day, and our most beautiful project together. We know that the road may be strewn with pitfalls, that the challenges may be many, but this only strengthens our determination to build a happy and caring home.
We want to give our future child the best of ourselves and pass on our values and hopes. We want to raise him in an environment where he will feel safe, where he can blossom and grow in complete confidence. In our home, our child will know that he is loved, that he is precious in our eyes. We’ll be there every step of the way, ready to listen, guide and encourage him in his choices and aspirations. We’ll be his unconditional supporters.
We are aware that parenthood is a profound commitment, an immense responsibility. We’ve thought long and hard about it, and our decision to have a child has been carefully considered. We feel we are strong enough, having developed a strong relationship that will be a solid foundation for a future family. And we’re ready to give the best of ourselves every day to offer our child a life rich in love, fulfillment, and happiness.
So, we embark on this adventure with determination. We believe in the magic of family, in the power of love. And we’re ready to give our all to make our dream come true.
Once again, we were lucky, as Mathieu’s best friend, whom he’s known for 15 years, agreed to be our egg donor. We are now both very close to her. It means a lot to us that she agreed to make this gesture, after thinking about it for several months, because it’s such an impactful decision. It shows that she has confidence in our relationship and our ability to make future children happy. It’s a mark of confidence that moved us deeply. It’s very important to us because it means she’ll be able to play the role of female reference and godmother, which will enable our child to be surrounded in the best possible way. Mathieu is also very close to Charlotte’s parents, and we’re delighted that they too will have a special bond with them, as extended family.
This child will be raised in love. Our friends and family have always told us that they can see us as parents and that it would be a shame not to have the chance to experience that.
Our child will have a life full of friends and experiences, living in Paris, spending weekends in the countryside, and vacationing in Burgundy or on the Côte d’Azur in the summer. We want to be able to share our values with him and allow him to blossom into a beautiful person.
We are aware that the road to parenthood is not an easy one for us, as a same-sex couple. But we believe that these difficulties will not only strengthen us as a couple, but also our determination to start a family. We will have fought hard to create our family, as the fruit of both love and hard work. That’s why we’ve chosen to use a surrogate mother, who is willing to make an incredibly generous gesture and help us realize our dream. It’s certainly the greatest gift we’ll ever receive in our lives.
Ideally, we want to create a lasting relationship with the person who will carry our child and give life to our future child. It’s precisely because GPA is altruistic in Canada that we’ve chosen to focus our research on it, so that the human experience takes precedence over material considerations. We would be honored if our surrogate mother agreed to forge a long-term bond with us and the child. On the other hand, if she chooses not to continue this bond, we’ll accept that just as much. After all, we don’t just see the surrogate mother as someone who gives birth to our child, but as an integral member of our extended family. We want to establish a connection based on trust, openness and mutual understanding. We want our child to grow up knowing that he or she was born of the love and collaboration between us and this exceptional person who has agreed to take this journey with us.
We understand the deep and intense bond that develops between a mother and the baby she carries during pregnancy. We want our surrogate to share this experience with us, allowing us to play an active part in her maternity journey. We want to support and accompany her throughout this extraordinary adventure.
By creating a relationship with her, if she agrees, we hope that our child will grow up with a clear understanding of his or her origins. We think it’s important to be as honest as possible with our child, explaining how he or she came into the world, and the surrogate will be part of the story we tell. So we’d be delighted if there could be a link between the surrogate and the child, and if he could talk to her if that’s what she wants. We want him to be able to ask questions, discover his story and forge valuable bonds with our surrogate. We want our child to feel safe and loved, knowing he has an extended family around him.
We understand that every family is unique, every situation is different, and we’re ready to tailor our relationship to our surrogate’s needs and preferences. Our ultimate goal is to create a positive, loving environment for our child, where he or she can grow up surrounded by love, respect and understanding.
Our words reflect the authenticity of our feelings and the depth of our desire to welcome a first child into our lives. Ideally, we’d like to have 2 children, so that our first child can have the powerful experience of growing up in a sibling family, but also because it’s easier to cope with our parents’ old age with the help of brothers and sisters.
We’ll be forever grateful for the generosity and willingness of the surrogate to explore this possibility with us.
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