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Look out for the green cross if you’re trying to find a pharmacy in an unfamiliar town


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 santé’ (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


FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2024 77


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