French pharmacies

muon

muon

muon

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About to arrive in France soon, and realised I have a really bad headache and no meds with me.

All pharmacies will be closed by the time I arrive. The ones that are open close around midday.

Do petrol/service stations normally sell paracetamol or ibuprofen?
 
muon said:
About to arrive in France soon, and realised I have a really bad headache and no meds with me.

All pharmacies will be closed by the time I arrive. The ones that are open close around midday.

Do petrol/service stations normally sell paracetamol or ibuprofen?
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ask your hotel reception? ask the nearest french person you see at the airport station? ask a flight attendant?
ask at passport control :P

if you search on Carrefour's online shopping there is no paracétamol.

(i like how its got efour in its name.)
 
muon said:
About to arrive in France soon, and realised I have a really bad headache and no meds with me.

All pharmacies will be closed by the time I arrive. The ones that are open close around midday.

Do petrol/service stations normally sell paracetamol or ibuprofen?
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Not sure about petrol stations but markets and supermarkets will as long as they have a pharmacy section. Unfortunately France is quite strict.
 
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Problem is everything is closing, or never opened at all, its Sunday. If it was a weekday I wouldnt have been concerned.

I can see a Carrefour closes at 1pm. Hopefully can make it to that one.

I'm on a ferry, nothing onboard. I also read online, only pharmacists are allowed to dispense any kind of medicine in France, because the French abuse drugs much more than us.
 
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muon said:
Problem is everything is closing, or never opened at all, its Sunday. If it was a weekday I wouldnt have been concerned.

I can see a Carrefour closes at 1pm. Hopefully can make it to that one.
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Yeah that's going to be tough. Check it has a pharmacy section in it.

Try and find a "pharmacie de garde" these are special pharmacies that have different out of office opening times.
 
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muon said:
Problem is everything is closing, or never opened at all, its Sunday. If it was a weekday I wouldnt have been concerned.

I can see a Carrefour closes at 1pm. Hopefully can make it to that one.

I'm on a ferry, nothing onboard. I also read online, only pharmacists are allowed to dispense any kind of medicine in France, because the French abuse drugs much more than us.
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Yeah, my French gf is always surprised at what we can buy off the shelf (so to speak) in Boots/Superdrug. Everyone I'm sick (uk), she asks me when I'll make a doctor's appointment to get meds. She's never quite grasped how I can just drive to the nearest pharmacy and buy them.
 
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muon said:
Everything was closed, I think for Pharmacie de garde you have to phone this special number which is more hassle given my French is poor. Decided to stop somewhere earlier and get a good nights sleep.
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Ah sorry to hear. Hope you're ok.

Yeah the French are strict on their medication, hope you get yourself sorted today.
 
Most towns should have a pharmacy open this morning. Don’t know which part of France you’re in or heading to, but having a pharmacy inside a supermarket down here in the South West isn’t common unless it’s a huge hyper market complex.

Be aware that the standard size ibuprofen tablet is 400mg and 1000mg for paracetamol. You won’t get anything with codine in it with a prescription. The pharmacist will give you a “Don’t take more than 3 a day, 8 hours apart with food” warning if you buy ibuprofen.

A packet of generic 10-12 400mg ibuprofen tablets should be around €4.
 
We had to use the French health service last year and it was far easier and smoother sailing than our experience at home. Arrived ad local hospital at 4am on a Sunday, and the place wasn't full of drunks who had staggered out of the local clubs etc. They had my wife in a bed and on morphine within 20 mins.

Once we were sorted, they sent us off with a prescription for more morphine and told us how to find the emergency pharmacy where we were going.They guy at the pharmacy was looking concerned and said I was going to have to pay for the tablets and wanted to make 100% sure that I was going to be ok paying for them. Got my card out expecting to be paying out loads, and the bill was 8 euros...

Eventually a bill for the hospital visit, doctors, drugs, etc. turned up and it was all of 100 euros.
 
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