But Claudine Prieto's thoughts are never far from an isolated frontier town on the edge of Argentina and Bolivia.

Mrs Prieto tries to travel to the impoverished city twice a year to visit 80 disabled children who live together in Salvador Mazza, a dangerous town known for its drug trafficking trade.

She became aware of the charity non-government organisation VYACE - ''Living and Loving with Hope'' - when her husband Cedric was posted to Argentina at the start of his diplomatic career.

The couple began to raise money for the centre, which provides respite care, education and therapy for the children, while living in the country and they have since set up a France-based association to contribute.

While Mr Prieto undertakes his role at the embassy of France, his wife takes care of family life for their three children while continually fund-raising with the help of a few friends for the disadvantaged children of the border town across the other side of the world.

She also takes care of the couple's severely disabled eldest daughter, who at the age of 14 is becoming more difficult to look after without help.

Mrs Prieto says they will soon have to decide whether Alice, Victor, 10, and Juliette, 7, will take another posting after Canberra or return home.

During the family's previous postings in Brazil and Argentina, they had in-home help for the teenager but this is not the case in Australia.

''In France we have the government help and the system and when we're abroad it depends on the country but in this country it's quite difficult to get some help, it's really expensive and we can't afford to have someone full-time here, it's much more complicated,'' she said.

As such, Mrs Prieto says as much as she should participate more in the social life of the diplomatic circle it's not always possible.

Life was never going to be easy when the family transferred to Canberra from the other side of the world.

While people may think the diplomatic corps, that temporarily call the nation's capital home, have a life of luxury and privilege, this is not typically the norm.

And in the case of this French family, hailing from Paris, transporting three children about 17,000 kilometres to the land Down Under has been quite the challenge.

Mrs Prieto admits she wasn't too keen to travel to Australia.

''The problem here is that we are very far from everything, so it's a really long trip,'' she said.

''I was not very eager to come here and one point was, it's really, really far away.

''We know that we are in every country only for a few years so it's not easy to get integrated in the country because you are always in a very special status. People are not waiting for you in the country when you arrive and they have their own lives and it's not easy to get in touch with the local people.''

The family has been living in Canberra for just over a year and have slowly adjusted to the somewhat more relaxed pace.

''They say that Canberra is the capital of the bush and that's not wrong,'' Mrs Prieto said.

''We've been living in Rio and Paris which are big cities with a lot of different programs and it's quite relaxing here.''

Mrs Prieto says when she met her husband they had been interested in living abroad and had experienced this together before entering the world of foreign affairs. This she describes as a lifestyle choice, not just a career path.

Their children have all been born in different countries and largely cope well with each move.

Young Juliette did have a few difficulties adjusting when they first arrived in Canberra as she had spent mosty of her life in France after moving from the Brazilian capital as a toddler.

''This was the first time she was really leaving her own environment and language and arriving in a new country was a little bit difficult … but she's adapting,'' Mrs Prieto said.

''So maybe it's easier for our children than for any employee who is moving when the children are not accustomed to change. Ours have that in mind, they know that we are always moving but sometimes it is difficult because we leave people there that we love … and that's part of life too.''

While the family did not bring a great many things from France with them - mainly part of Mr Prieto's historical book collection and some paintings - their townhouse is filled with colourful art and knick-knacks collected along their travels.

Mrs Prieto says while the family tries to collect souvenirs of the places they have lived, the most important thing ''is memories you have in the head''.

The Prietos, who have been part of the French diplomatic core for well over a decade, are slowly getting used to the quiet life compared to the tourist meccas of Paris, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

''Like every place you have some advantages and disadvantages, too,'' Mrs Prieto said.

''It's really good with children, they are quite safe here, our school is not far, we don't have any problem of traffic, we can move easily.''

However, ''we are a bit far from the sea'', she said.