A Guide to Pharmacies in France

Monique Jackman takes a closer look at pharmacies – the only place you can find medicine for sale in her native France…

Pharmacies, unlike other shops, rarely have personalised or made-up names in France. However, I have seen one called ‘Pharmavie‘ (ma vie: my life), a few called ‘Espace santé‘ (health area), and perhaps predictably a good number called ‘La croix verte‘ (the pharmacy symbol). The word ‘parapharmacie’, which is sometimes part of a chemist’s name, is the French word for alternative medicines including health and hygiene products.

The national symbol for the Conseil National de l’Ordre des Pharmaciens is a big neon green cross, which nearly always hangs at a right angle to the shopfront. When the shop is open, it flashes non-stop in bright green, showing the ‘serpent and chalice’ symbol, a reminder of the origins of medical practice in the ancient world. This is in rotation with various information such as the date or the air temperature. When the pharmacy is closed, the cross is sometimes switched off. These big green crosses can be an easy way for those who are not local to quickly spot chemist shops.

Very few shops stay open at lunchtime in the Hexagone, but I have seen two good-sized pharmacies in two of the small towns near where we live stay open all day.

Notices about nearest ‘pharmacies de garde‘ are usually displayed on these shop windows, for emergencies when the shop is closed (emergency phone numbers for health issues include 18 and 15). As with some bakeries, it is not unusual to find pharmacies with their own free small parking areas (parking réservé à la pharmacie or parking gratuit).

MEDECINE MONOPOLY

It is not possible to buy anything other than plasters and mouthwash solution in other shops in France, including supermarkets of all sizes. Anything else for health problems, small and not so small – even simple painkillers or cleansing eye drops – can only be bought in pharmacies. You have to ask a pharmacist for these things as they are kept out of customers’ reach, either behind the counter or with the prescription medicines in a back room.

A few years back, an announcement was made in the press saying that it would be possible in the near future to find up to 200 basic medicines such as paracetamol in supermarkets, but this plan hasn’t materialised where I live so far.

I once asked a pharmacist for the strongest type of sore throat sweets available without a prescription, and she gave me a very medical-looking box of 12 tablets from behind the counter. It surprised me that these sweets out of customers’ reach – which looked like large paracetamol tablets, had the same kind of texture as Refreshers sweets, and which I had to suck until they vanished – were nowhere near as effective as British Tunes sweets, for example. There are, however, some makes of sweets that relieve sore throats available in many food shops, usually alongside the other sweets and chocolates. That day I was hoping for something stronger, but I wasn’t in luck.

FREE ADVICE

I only once came across a pharmacist who did not have a faultless approach to customers. I have known a chemist to ring my doctor there and then to raise a query about something on my prescription. It wasn’t a very brief question and answer; I couldn’t believe my ears.

The staff in chemist’s shops are also more than happy to answer questions you have about your prescriptions, as well as about other health problems, and they never hesitate to get a second opinion from a colleague, no matter how busy the shop is. When uncertain about a health problem, they’ll tell you to see a doctor straight away of course, but otherwise, they’ll suggest an appropriate course of treatment that can be provided from the pharmacy. They will also stress that you should see a doctor if there is no sign of any improvement after a certain number of days.

A recent example was when my daughter had a large ugly red spider bite on the back of her leg which wouldn’t go away, and we went home with two large boxes in a pharmacy’s formal paper carrier bag. Pharmacists also volunteer advice. When, together with my prescription for blood pressure, I got a packet of Kréma sweets (soft liquorice gums), the pharmacist very kindly pointed out that liquorice is not recommended for people with my health problem (in fact, the sweets, which I used to love as a child, were for my daughter). Staff are also happy to check people’s blood pressure on request, for free. They can give customers guidelines, or details of how to get help about anything under the sun with regards to health issues. They never look in a hurry, no matter how long the queue is. There are a couple of small rooms staffed by nurses for things like the annual flu jabs or the Covid vaccinations.

GOOD HEALTH

Parting niceties from pharmacists include ‘bonne sante’ (which in addition to the general ‘good health’ wish at apéritif time, is also the French for ‘get better/well soon’) and ‘bon courage’, which is what the French like to say to people who are facing problems of any sort as they part.

There were three good-sized chemist shops in my town of a population of nearly 10,000 when we arrived more than 16 years ago. One has since closed the one we use has six counters. They are usually all busy in the morning (indeed, the queue sometimes spills out of the shop), and I have never seen fewer than three counters open in the afternoon.

I have quite often heard people joke about the French making an industry of worrying about their health. Although I can understand why there is such a view, I am also totally unable to explain why or whether this is a true or false view. What I can say is that excluding any prescriptions for permanent conditions, we have always been left with up to half of any other medications prescribed for other troubles, and, indeed, for over-the- counter items. For example, we were left with about three-quarters of the big box of sterilised gauze in individual sealed sachets as well as about half the bottle of the lotion in a big box to apply on my daughter’s sore leg by the time the spider bite had cleared up.

All out-of-date or other unused medicines should be taken to your nearest pharmacy where they will be adequately disposed of.

Monique Jackman has written several French language books, including the Better French series, available from Amazon and other bookshops…

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