Pharmacies in France and What Travellers Can Buy

You wake up in a village guesthouse with a sore throat, a blister the size of a coin or a child with a temperature, and the nearest doctor is booked until Thursday. In France the answer is almost always the pharmacy with the green cross, and knowing how pharmacies in France work saves you time, money and a fair amount of stress on a slow trip.

French pharmacists are trained to give advice, and they do it every day for minor problems that would send you to a clinic elsewhere. There are around 20,000 pharmacies in the country, which means even towns of 1,500 people usually have one. What changes in the countryside is the opening hours, not the quality of help.

How pharmacies in France differ from a chemist at home

The first surprise for many visitors is that a French pharmacie is not a supermarket aisle. Painkillers such as paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin sit behind the counter, and you ask for them. Since 2020 none of them can be sold self service. Supermarkets cannot sell any medicine at all, not even a box of throat lozenges with an active ingredient.

That sounds inconvenient, but it means every purchase comes with a short conversation. The pharmacist will ask what you are taking it for, if you take anything else and sometimes how old the patient is. Answer plainly. They are not judging you, they are checking doses.

A few names worth knowing, because brand names differ from the UK and North America:

Doliprane or Efferalgan: paracetamol, usually 500 mg or 1,000 mg tablets. A box of eight 1,000 mg tablets costs about 2 to 3 euros.
Advil or Nurofen: ibuprofen, often in 200 mg or 400 mg doses.
Smecta: sachets for mild stomach upset, very common after an ambitious restaurant week.
Biafine: a cream for sunburn and minor burns.
Tire-tique: a small plastic tick remover, about 4 to 6 euros, worth buying if you walk in long grass.

Finding an open pharmacy at night or on Sunday

Rural pharmacies usually open around 9:00, close for lunch from about 12:30 to 14:00 and shut again by 19:00 or 19:30. Many close on Saturday afternoon and almost all close on Sunday. The same rhythm governs restaurants and shops, as we explain in our piece on why rural kitchens close at 13:30.

Outside those hours, one pharmacy in each district stays on call. This is the pharmacie de garde. To find it:

Walk to any closed pharmacy. A notice on the door or window lists the pharmacy on duty that night or weekend, with its address and phone number.
Call 3237, the national service that gives the duty pharmacy for your postcode. It is a paid call of around 0.35 euros per minute.
Ask your host. In small places everyone knows which pharmacy is on rotation this week.

At night the duty pharmacy often serves you through a small hatch, and you may need to ring a bell or call ahead. In some departments you must first phone the gendarmerie, who pass on your request. A fixed on-call fee of a few euros is added to your bill after 20:00 and on Sundays.

What travellers can buy without a prescription

For a short stay, nearly everything you need for minor problems is available over the counter. The table below covers the situations I see most often when guests ask me for help.

Problem	What to ask for	Typical price
Headache or fever	Paracetamol (Doliprane)	2 to 3 euros
Blisters from walking	Hydrocolloid plasters (pansements ampoules)	6 to 9 euros
Sore throat	Throat lozenges (pastilles pour la gorge)	4 to 7 euros
Insect bites	Antihistamine cream or tablets	5 to 10 euros
Mild stomach upset	Smecta sachets	4 to 6 euros

Antibiotics, stronger painkillers containing codeine and most eye drops for infections need a prescription. If the pharmacist thinks you need a doctor, they will tell you, and they can often phone a local GP or point you to a medical centre with walk-in hours.

Bringing a prescription from abroad

A prescription written in another EU country can be filled in France if it shows the generic drug name, dose, your details and the prescriber's details. From outside the EU it is less straightforward. Carry the generic name of anything you take regularly, written down, and bring enough for the whole trip plus a week.

Why I tell guests not to pack a full medicine kit

The usual travel advice is to pack a complete first aid kit before you leave: painkillers, plasters, antiseptic, stomach remedies, antihistamines, sun cream, the lot. For a slow trip through France I think that is wasted space and weight.

The pharmacy network is dense enough that you are rarely more than 15 minutes by car from one during opening hours, and French versions of common medicines are cheap because many prices are regulated. A full kit bought at home often costs more and sits unused in a bag you are trying to keep light. Our guide on packing light for a slow trip through rural France makes the same argument for clothes.

What I do recommend packing is small and specific: any regular prescription medicine, a few blister plasters for the first day of walking, a basic painkiller for the journey itself and a tick remover if you arrive on a Sunday. Everything else can wait until Monday morning, when you can buy exactly what you need with advice included.

One more habit worth adopting: when you arrive somewhere new for a week, note where the nearest pharmacy is and its hours, the same way you would check the bakery. It takes two minutes on the first walk through town and saves a scramble on a Saturday evening.

Paying and getting money back

Pharmacies take cards almost everywhere, including contactless, though a tiny village pharmacy may set a minimum of 5 or 10 euros. Holders of a European Health Insurance Card can claim back part of the cost of prescribed medicine, but over the counter purchases are not reimbursed. Keep the receipt, called a facture or ticket, if your travel insurance covers medical costs; most insurers ask for an itemised one.

Frequently asked questions

Can you buy ibuprofen over the counter in France?

Yes, ibuprofen is sold without a prescription in pharmacies, usually in 200 mg or 400 mg tablets. You have to ask for it at the counter because it is no longer on open shelves. The pharmacist may ask a quick question about other medicines you take.

Are pharmacies in France open on Sundays?

Most are closed on Sundays, but one pharmacy in each area stays open on a rotating duty schedule. The address is posted on the door of every closed pharmacy nearby, and you can also call 3237 to find it.

Do French pharmacists speak English?

Many younger pharmacists in towns and tourist areas speak some English, but in rural villages it is less certain. Writing the generic name of the medicine or showing the empty box from home works very well, as does a translation app for describing symptoms.