Pharamacie

I finally fell victim to the cold that seems to be going around Paris. Everyone is sick. My coworkers, friends I had dinner with last weekend, the lady coughing next to me on the Metro. Ugh. So I've managed to "attraper un rhume" (catch a cold).

Before coming to Paris I bought a couple boxes of each of my favorite US medications, thinking that if I was really sick, I might not want to worry about finding the French equivalent. Well, apparently I forgot the Sudafed, because there was none to be found this morning while rummaging around my private drugstore (aka, the bottom drawer in my bathroom).

I love French pharmacies, but I've never been sick here before and needed a real medication (usually I just frequent pharamacies for various beauty products).

What a great experience though! You just walk in, and one of the friendly (friendly?!) women behind the counter will ask you what your symptoms are (cold with a stuffy nose), and then she asks some follow up questions (ok, do you have a headache? A fever? What medications are you on?) and voila! a medication is selected from the shelves behind the counter. And then she proceeds to tell you how to use it, and even offers some other health tips (like I should be irrigating my nose with saline or something ... not sure about that one). 4 euros later I was out the door and feeling quite happy about the whole transaction. This experience was definitely better than standing in the immense "cold and flu" section at Target, and trying to decipher active ingredients and brands, and match them to your symptoms when you're feeling under the weather!