Got aspirin?
You cannot find paper products at the Green Pharmacy, nor laundry products, or candy, food, or other odd stuff we find at the drug store here in America. But you can find tampons (sorry). And you can find beauty hardware products v. beauty products per se. Like mirrors, many many magnified mirrors, some with fancy lights. Every Green Pharmacy has them and most of them display them in the windows. The significance of this eludes me, but one would have to conclude that people in France like magnified mirrors and most of them must be sight impaired if one goes by the magnification numbers. 10x. Who wants to see their face magnified 10x? That would be frightening. Almost as bad as seeing your neighbors naked by accident. Mon Dieu.
In America by contrast, a Pharmacy is not neon green. They are a variety of boring colors, and most are just simple beige or gray. A neon green cross is so much more entertaining. Aspirin - the wonder drug. You can find that yourself on a shelf in the American pharmacy or even in a Super Marche in America. Even a petrol station. Americans need access to lots of aspirin apparently. Even though CDG airport did not have any aspirin, it is ok. Every other airport has more than enough aspirin for sale to make up for that short sightedness.
In France you cannot buy Naproxen in the Green Pharmacy without a prescription. Oh oh. Another thing to know before you leave America. Bring your Aleve with you! But buy Advil there. It is available at the Green Pharmacy, but you must ask for it by name and then they will retrieve it from a special locked file drawer in the back. Otherwise you will get some generic variant and we Americans are loath to do that.
The Green Pharmacy is open strange hours. I never did figure out those hours, but you can be sure that it was closed when I tried to go there. Fortunately, there is one Green Pharmacy open (sort of like on-call) later than the others. In America, a pharmacy can be open 24 hours a day. Many are open 7 days a week and more than 12 hours a day. In France you have to pre-plan your illness in order to coordinate trip to a pharmacy - so if you intend to get sick or get a headache, you must make sure it is during Pharmacy hours, never on Sunday, and often not a good plan to get a headache or sick on Monday when many Green Pharmacies are closed as well.
Did I also mention that most Green Pharmacies are no bigger than our postage stamp, itty bitty Paris apartment. Closet sized. American closet size, not European size, which are very very much smaller. And the clerks wear white coats. There must be a universal pharmacy rule that requires white coats. Dispensing aspirin in a white coat makes the French comfortable it seems, makes the aspirin quite genuine.
Here in America, aspirin sits on a shelf for you to pick yourself, and it can come in many packages, from the plain to the ones that are attached to free items like a new comb. After all, after your headache is gone, you might want to comb your hair. Thoughtful. Sometimes in these stores that sell aspirin in America, you can get a deal where if you buy one bottle you can get one free. Everyone needs 3,856 aspirins just in case you live to be 123, or you are supplying the neighborhood with salicylic acid. At least in France you will get a reasonable amount- maybe 20 pills. Why waste the stuff. After all, each headache deserves its own trip to the neon Green Pharmacy. Except on Sunday, Monday or holidays. Save some from your 20 packet!
We thought the Green Pharmacy was an interesting experience, but we prefer being able to buy toilet paper or a greeting card at the same time as aspirin. And maybe a package of gummie bears as well.
Comments
I think you've summed up American drugstores like Walgreens & CVS to a 't'!!! Three thousand aspirin ... and don't forget school supplies, a digital camera, and a gallon of ice cream ...
You have such a unique perspective on things related to your travels ... I love posts like this that explain those "subtle" differences .... haha :)
You have such a unique perspective on things related to your travels ... I love posts like this that explain those "subtle" differences .... haha :)
Really interesting piece L&P. Rated for "I didn't know this." :-)
You buy the flu vaccine from the green pharmacy too. And then you have a second rendevous with the doctor to inject it in France. On the other hand, you can rent a wheelchair or crutches there but can;t find chocolate. In the supermarket, you can buy "candy" (m & m's, etc) in the candy aisle, but for chocolate, you must go to the confiserie. They are only open on the second Thursday after Toussaints day but only if there is no agricultural strike.
Tanks for making me homesick! I'm off to the pharmacy for something that I don;t have to stick up my butt (the French love that too, don't they?). Rated.
Tanks for making me homesick! I'm off to the pharmacy for something that I don;t have to stick up my butt (the French love that too, don't they?). Rated.
Cart- you make me laugh. Yeah, I miss it too, even with all the strange rules about where you can buy stuff. I lived near La Maison du Chocolat. Guess where I spent my days?
Thanks Blue. Bring your Aleve with you!
1IM, those subtle differences are what makes us different cultures. It is heaven for comedy.
Thanks Blue. Bring your Aleve with you!
1IM, those subtle differences are what makes us different cultures. It is heaven for comedy.
Imagine that ... YOU lived near Maison Du CHOCLOAT ... I would have never guessed ...
and I love that the girls are dressed in the perfect shade of mossy green to accentuate your post ... girl's best friend, indeed!!!
The Green Pharmacy sounds kind of cute although certainly annoying if you're searching for an aspirin at 2AM during the middle of the week or something.
But, you can't beat being able to stumble into CVS in the middle of the night for whatever you need. It's definitely been a lifesaver for us at least a few times, and it doesn't hurt that there is one about a half block from our house!
But, you can't beat being able to stumble into CVS in the middle of the night for whatever you need. It's definitely been a lifesaver for us at least a few times, and it doesn't hurt that there is one about a half block from our house!
I always know when I read something twice---it's really good.
Reality (not reality shows---but real reality) can really be funny.
Reality (not reality shows---but real reality) can really be funny.
These days in North America, it's getting hard to distinguish between pharmacies and supermarkets. Maybe we need some of that green signage. Rated for reminding me to bring my own drugs next time I got to France.
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