French Pharmacies --- Where is my Walgreens?

In every town and village of France, the local pharmacy can be found by locating the green neon plus sign (or cross if you will). I think the green cross may be the international sign for pharmacies, or at least it is the symbol for France. Like the red cross that we all know in humanitarian circumstances, we can look for the green cross in France anytime we have a headache or need a new toothbrush.

Now let me describe for you what a typical pharmacy in France might be like. Once you open the door to enter you will be surprised the public space for the whole pharmacy is no larger than a typical parking space for an automobile in the Walgreens parking lot. The space will be very clean, usually tiled with white tile floors and with only a couple of display racks for toothbrushes, soaps, or other season items. The counter for the pharmacist or pharmacists will have a computer terminal, a credit card machine and maybe a display rack of two for various other items. You will need to ask the pharmacist for what you need. You will not even find aspirin or anything medicinal on the racks in the public area of the pharmacy. Often you may even need to ask the pharmacist for items such as nail file or nail clippers. You will be able to ask for medicines which you have a doctor's prescription for as well as other medicines you would normally find on the counters in a typical Walgreens or CVS in the states. There will even be some vitamins or supplements that the pharmacist will not even have in France. Melatonin for example is an illegal substance here, even for flight attendants, who may have to deal with jet lag from long haul flights.

I do miss the Walgreens on Via Linda in Scottsdale, where I could stop by on the way home from work and find a variety of items from greeting cards and stationary goods to vitamins, juices and oreos. In the market segmentation of France none of this is possible. Stationary and pens need to be purchased at the Office Supply store. A small selection of greeting cards may be found a the newsstand/tabac. Oreos if they could be found here, would be in a grand space grocery store. While one could wander around most Walgreens stores for an hour, the French pharmacy is not intended for such a purpose. The only reason you would be in a French pharmacy for more than 5 minutes is because there was a queue of people ahead of you waiting to pick up their flu virus vaccines!