If you’ve ever been to France, you’re probably familiar with the flashing green French pharmacy signs, which are just as prevalent as Starbucks shops in New York. Throughout France, these neon signs indicate the location of a pharmacy, but tourists take note — these pharmacies are anything but boring!
What can you find in French pharmacies?
Why French pharmacies rule!
First, I should point out that French pharmacies are not like your neighborhood Duane Reades. They’re all privately owned and chain stores don’t exist. It’s perfectly normal to be on a first-name basis with your pharmacist. French pharmacies are drug stores and sell, well, drugs.
They don’t carry items like greeting cards, magazines, candy or cigarettes. Instead, they’re of neatly arranged boxes and tubes for every ailment that could ever plague you. There are all kinds of things like aspirin, muscle creams, vitamins and even Frontline for pets. French pharmacies sometimes have a parapharmacie section for non-prescription items where they toothpaste, baby bottles, nail clippers and other items.
Differences between pharmacies in France vs. the USA >>
French pharmacies are strictly places to get medicine and it can take some getting used to if your neighborhood CVS at home was your go-to place for everything. 
While waiting in line, I’m still like a kid in a candy store, all wide-eyed taking in all the goodies staring right back at me.
When you do get to the counter, there’s nothing quite like the first time you have to explain your diarrhea problem to a complete stranger in earshot of others in the pharmacy. With an accent. Twice.
You see, in France, the pharmacists help you choose the medicine(s) you need. You can’t just walk in wearing dark sunglasses, grab what you need and be on your way. Nope, here you describe your symptoms to the pharmacist and he/she gets you what you need from behind the counter. Yes, it’s embarrassing, but rest assured, this is totally normal.
Now, hypothetically because there are so many pharmacies to choose from, you could travel a little farther to make sure your embarrassing explanations stay out of earshot of a possible neighbor. No, of course I’ve never gone to a pharmacy in the neighboring town for something a little more embarrassing. But you could. I have embarrassing situations right in town!
French people aren’t so self-conscious, so not to worry — French pharmacists are expertly trained on just about anything you could need treatment for. This comes in handy when you cut yourself on a holiday that falls on a Sunday and you don’t know if you need stitches. For 10 euros and five little boxes of products later, you could be as good as new! I was.
Speaking of products, do you know these common American medicines and their French equivalents?
4 French healthcare myths you should stop believing >>
Speaking of little boxes… 
When I first met Tom, I thought he was some kind of hypochondriac because when I opened his medicine cabinet, I saw, I kid you not, about 50 little boxes of various medications. And several months later, I realized it was totally normal for a French person to have quite a collection.
You see, in France, pills aren’t carefully counted out and run through your insurance and packaged in a little childproof bottle with your name, address, quantity, etc. While prescription drugs are still regulated here, it’s not anything like what we know in the U.S.
In fact, there’s no word for “filling” a prescription in French. Here, you just show up at the pharmacy, show your prescription and get on your merry way in all of five minutes. You’ll get an entire box of your medication with handwritten instructions on what you need to take.
What’s that you say, you don’t need all 48 pills in the box? Doesn’t matter. You get the whole box anyway. But medicines are cheap here, so it’s not really an issue. As you can see, it’s easy to accumulate a lot of extra boxes.
Interested in skin care products and other things to stock your bathroom with?
Parapharmacies are what you’re after. They carry non-prescription goodies from eye creams to body scrubs to other specialized treatments for the face and body. If you’re a beauty buff or just curious, make sure you check a few out. Tom groans every time I say I need to stop at the parapharmacie because he knows it can take at least 20 minutes — on a good day.
If you have some extra cash, trial and error is always fun. Cool packaging? Name you can’t pronounce? No idea what it does? Who cares. It’s French and you just have to try it. At first, that was my method of trying new products, until I mistakenly picked up an “intimate” cleanser instead of shower gel. In my defense, the bottles looked similar! Now I read the labels.
Weird French pharmacy products worth a try >>
Also, here’s a word of advice if you find yourself in a French pharmacy with some money to spend. Looks are deceiving! Sometimes the most effective product comes in amateur packaging like the much raved about vitamin A anti aging cream Avibon (that Gwyneth Paltrow talked about on her blog, among other things).
Intrigued? Where can you buy Avibon online? New London Pharmacy in NYC carries a bunch of stuff as do eBay and Amazon.
Do you love visiting French pharmacies?
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looks like fun lol
i can shop anywhere
I saw them in France – how can you miss them? – but I never went in one. I wish I had now…
If you visit France again one day, be sure to stop in a pharmacy. Lots to see 😉
Nice post! I love French pharmacies too. Like you, I feel like a kid in a candy store… they have such wonderful products and the packaging is fabulous. I’ll be back in France this summer, can’t wait …
Ohhh… I don’t know. The thing I don’t like about pharmacies in France is that you’re sort of at the mercy of the pharmacist to make product decisions FOR you. At Walgreens or others in the States, I spend ages reading the backs of boxes and comparing remedies. I remember when I first moved here and went to buy baby rice cereal (sold at the pharmacy (????) for my newborn, the pharmacist gave me a box of whatever- So I thought there was only ONE brand of rice cereal in France, since she never asked me what brand I wanted or what I was looking for. She just sort of plunked it on the counter. The same for room disinfectant like Lysol in the States (ALSO only sold in pharmacies- go figure!!). If you ask for something to sanitize the air, the pharmacist will just go grab something and start ringing it up. One time I got “phuffed” at because I asked to see a SELECTION of air sanitizers- turns out there were 3 or 4 different brands back there!! After that, I couldn’t go back to that pharmacy because I was sure I pissed her off and that she would purposely give me an inferior product from then on… I also don’t understand how ALL of the pharmacies manage to stay in business. Sometimes there are 3 pharmacies on ONE block! Very strange 🙂
Yeah, good point. It always does seem like the pharmacist is just grabbing whatever leaving the consumer without many options. Is there a competitor for Doliprane? I don’t even know. If you have a headache, that’s what the pharmacist gives you. Very strange concept if you’re used to going to Target or CVS and browsing. I always feel like I’m being rushed at the pharmacies in France!
I purchase Avibon a couple of weeks ago while in Paris. I’m upset with myself for only getting ONE. I’ll send you Dunkin Donuts. Lol. 🙂
i’m serious if you are. email me at ouiinfrance at gmail.com
love the comments and luv what i have seen so far of french phamacy beauty products!
Hi there. Do you know if I need a prescription to buy Front line in Paris if I’m American? Thank you much!!
Hi there, I’m not 100% certain if you need a prescription but when I pop in to see my pharmacist this weekend I will ask. I’m leaning toward no, though. It’s on display like all the other over the counter stuff but like I said, not certain. I’ll find out and update my comment. 😉
Hi, I asked at my local pharmacy (not Paris but i’m sure it’s the same everywhere) and Frontline does NOT require an rx. Hope that helps!
Here in USA you can’t get your doctor prescribed pain pills. The pharmacists discriminate you. I guess when I win my disability case I will move to France and rent my condo out in the USA to keep my benefits….f..k you america…what comes around goes around.
Hi there, I’m sorry to hear about your pain and discrimination. If you are planning to move to France, you may want to see how your specific medication is regulated here. For even severe pain, they seem to give Tylenol with codeine and oxycodone derived medications are rarely used outside of terminal cancer cases. In France, things like the Percocet and Oxycontin aren’t common at all, definitely not the level to which they are in the US. Just to give an example, after having impacted wisdom teeth, you get Advil or maybe Tylenol with codeine. Hope your situation improves. All the best to you!
Are you still interested in a Dunkin Donuts/French Beauty trade?
Gretchenmcallahan@gmail.com
Xo
Hi Gretchen, emailing you now…
Hi,i was in Paris for 1 week this year i have RA and mutibul rhuematuid artisith,long story short my Celebrex wasnt working.I went in to a pharmacy with the green sighn a man behind the counter spoke a littele english i was walking like Frankinstein because my toes would not bend or ancles i told him what i had and he sold me a box of what i think was anti-flammatory with pain meds it worked like a charm.Im back home my RA claims he never heard of anything close he gave me a med that only gave side effects plus wrote a pycial therapy scrip that tore the cartlige and on my rib’s i had surgary on,can any one help i cant rember the pharmacy.im sorry for my bad grammer mispeled words i havent slept in 72 hrs Thank you.
Hi there, all French pharmacies have the same medicines so happy to try to help but not sure how? DO you remember what kind of box the medicine came in or what the pills looked like? Glad it helped you!
When I was in France 3 yrs ago a pharmacy sold me Decontractyl Baume 80mg for sore leg muscles. I can’t find anything like it in U S. Is there a place I can order it online?
Hi Ed, I just googled for you and found it here. They seem to ship internationally if you take a look at their shipping page:
https://lasante.net/
Great, found it & ordered.
I go to a pain management doctor here (USA) monthly and get prescriptions of Oxycodone and Methadone for leg pain. From what I am reading, I would not be able to get these pain medicines from a doctor in France. Am I correct?
Hi Larry, I’m not really sure of the legality of it but if you came here with a US prescription for a certain class of drugs, the pharmacist may not be able to give you your medicine. I’m not sure if they’d require you to have a French doctor prescribe your medicine or what. Sorry I can’t be helpful. Best to ask in a specific pharmacy forum or maybe call a high-volume pharmacy in Paris to check. Have a good day!
pharmacy cannot give methadone without an “ordonnance securisee”, aka special prescriptions for special medecine (morphine, oxy, methadone, etc.) for not longer than 28days.
And good luck getting one. You could go in the american hospital of paris in neuilly if you have cash to spend and time to spare while they check if you can get that prescription or not.
They sound just like the ones here in the UK… Quite a European thing. Though, our skincare products in pharmacies might not be as vast but still there.
Hi there