La Pharmacie

I am nowhere near the first (or millionth) person to write about the particularities of the French pharmacies, but they are worth all of the commentary. The pharmacie is a strange combination of an actual pharmacy and beauty store combined with amazing customer service. First, if you want any sort of medication at all (or even items like contact lens solution), you must walk up to the pharmacist and ask for what you want or describe your symptoms and have them give you something. This is increasingly strange because, while it applies to very basic medication like Advil, it also applies to things that in the U.S. must be prescribed by doctors, like codeine (yes, Mom, I remember that I am allergic to codeine, it is just an example). Also, many beauty products, particularly skincare, are considered to be essentially medications, or as important as medications, so if you walk in and begin to look at the various body lotions or face creams (or even cellulite cream, which is hugely popular here, it seems), a pharmacist will come to assist you. You tell her what your skin issues are or what you are looking for and she will recommend things and have you test them out there. Pharmacy brands here are also not the super cheap ones. It is not as expensive as the private beauty brands with their own "by-appointment-only" boutiques certainly, and most drugstores carry a range, but it is more expensive then what one can get at the grocery store or Coop city. Even though it is a pharmacist assisting you and taking this process very seriously, it is not clinical -- when I last bought lotion, she expounded about the smell of some of them or the sensual experience of using another. Then, when you check out, like in a department store in the U.S., you get tons and tons of free samples.

I should all mention that this isn't in one of the big or fancy pharmacies, but the small one in our little town. Oh, and the beauty products here are pretty amazing, which may explain the statistic I read that the average French woman spends something like 20% of her income on various beauty products and perfume.