Is it just me, or are French pharmacy prices enough to make your eyes water?

Thanks for that info Graham..to be honest...I make sure I have what I need and dont get the local papers so no idea. I think the biggest scam is that the government make sure you need to see your doctor every month for a repeat prescription....so you have to pay the GP his 22 euros..or whatever it is now. My husband needs thyroxine....has done for 15 years. In the UK he gets 6 months prescription at a time...and no charge as its a chronic condition and he needs the thyroxine for life....there is absolutely no need to see the GP every month....he just says hi, writes the script and you pay him 20 odd euro....now that is plain wrong. My husband is a doctor and discussed this with our French GP who could only shrug when asked why its neccessary to visit him monthly.....

Because non prescription drugs can be a free for all - the higher charge is almost certainly in respect to transport delivery if the pharmacy is in the middle of nowhere? However, both Leclerc and Intermarche are planning to sell non prescription drugs very soon!

Have to agree with you Catharine - Although this little anecdote will make you smile.

I was moaning to my very good natured pharmacist as I had to buy a pack of paracetamol at just under 2 euros.

I was quick to remind him they were 19p and that you could buy them in the supermarkets in the UK.

He looked up, sniffed diffidently, and said " I know - when I was last in the UK, I bought and umbrella in the pharmacy"

I guess you had to be there to appreciate the joke, but he was quick to respond and it did make me laugh.

Still had to cough up 2 euros for the paracetamol though......

I get my salted sausage skins from my local charcuterie at the back of the Port of Nice - for peanuts!?

Hmm. So how come Immodium lingual which is 5.40€ in most pharmacies in Dax is 6.50€ in the far more isolated pharmacy in Bidache where there is no competition for miles around?

(As you can tell I bought some there the other day and was really annoyed at being effectively ripped off due to lack of competition!)

Personally I think that the sooner the supermarkets can sell basic medications the better.

Carol - by law there has to be a Pharmacie de Garde open on Sundays (in towns - in this case Nice where there will one open in every quartier) - it's always advertised in the local paper. I can't honestly say that a pack of 1000mg Doliprane at €1.95 is expensive but at the same time the typical French pharmacy cannot really be compared to Boots or Wallgreens- they market completely different products apart from prescription drugs!! It is NOT true that the pharmacies can charge what they like - they are limited by the SS reimbursement and Mutuels!! I am paying exactly the same for some serious prescription drugs now in Nice as I was paying in January in Deauville!

Agree Catharine....especially with the sausages.... I asked for and got a lovely sausage making kit for Xmas last year... I made lots of tasty sausages in the UK over Xmas...buying a mix of ready made sausage meat from my butcher and adding either lean pork or bacon, chicken, black sausage, etc.....when I got here the first batch I made I bought 2 kilo's of ready made sausage from the butcher in town....3 of my guests had dangerous lumps of sharp bone in the sausages...couldnt believe it! have now found if you buy sausagemeat from either local supermarkets and a butcher....there is bone apparent. So now I have to make my own from scratch and had to buy a decent mincer...but the results are worth it.

Catharine, regrettably Dr Atkins doesn’t allow rice so I can’t comment.
However, vegetables in France just taste so good. And now that 70% of UK Tomatoes, Peppers etc are grown, soil free, in glass houses in Kent by a Dutch company, will they ever match what we enjoy here?
Ido still find some of the cuts of meat strange here but they also taste better than they did in West Sussex.

John thats great and I am delighted you are happy and you have come to the right place for you. We didnt exactly watch a tv programme and move...we have visited France up to 4 times a year for nigh on 30 years!

But things have changed, since the Euro prices have soared...other threads have dealt with cost of living, meat and the high prices...and restaurants no longer the best in the world..with over 70% serving frozen meals from the microwave.

We are not just moaning Brits either...my husband is Canadian and moved to the UK...we came here having enjoyed so many holidays...but not the same living here...of course. I was shocked at the attitude to customers...was suprised at the lack of business acumen shown by the governments here...suprised that for a house in the middle of no where with no services, no street lights...no rubbish collections..no mains sewerage....nothing really...we pay higher equivalent council taxes than we did for a large house with a large swimming pool in the Roya County of Berkshire, where it is supposed to be expensive!

As a non retired, under age bod...I would pay all for my health care (incidentally unlike all the French people who unhappy with Hollande in the first 6 months moved in huge numbers to London...they have free NHS care) which is one of the reasons I decided in the first 6 months to be resident in the UK and only visit my home and husband here!

If it suits people great...but this is no shangrila...

oh noooo! French wines...some are excellent..not all. I live in the Dordogne and we produce some very average wines...I have an apartment in the Languedoc...my favourite wine is muscat sec...fabulous...but I pay around £7 a bottle. Some of the new World wines are superb and have given France a shock by being better value.

I dont buy cr*p in cheap supermarkets in the UK...I use the markets...and buy fabulous locally grown veg...cheaper than the markets here...in fact...very much cheaper than the markets here. We had a love affair with France for nearly 30 years...Im not just slating it for the sake of it...things have changed so much here in the last 15 years...and not for the better....and things are so much more expensive.

I find the meat much cheaper in the UK...(I have a butcher and the meat we buy is all 'grown' locally, within 6 miles.) When I eat at a restaurant in Newbury, on the menu it tells me where the meat is sourced...I dont get that in France either...have asked at all the Eymet restaurants...no one can tell me! I dont dislike France Martin...I just know the cost of living here, apart from the cost of buying our house...is higher...and now,even the house, because we have lost out a huge amount on...making it about the same price as the UK!

Very well put John!

Something, true Doreen. There are some however who moan about everything - my wife tells me!! :-(

I don't know why she calls me Victor these days?

I agree. I was amazed at how low French pharmacy prices were compared to the US, even over the counter non-prescription preparations. On the other hand vitamins and nutritional supplements are criminally overpriced.

Sorry Martin but your comment has just cracked me up. *Tastes like poo*? Are you talking about Waitrose wholemeal pasta? Or Tesco basmati rice? Bit of a generalisation methinks! And as for the wine comment, I'm not even going there...sure there are a few wine writers out there who might disagree with you!!

Not always true unfortunately John. We've started making our own sausages and the casings work out cheaper online than in the local gamme vert.

Sad but true.

My thoughts exactly.

If we base our quality of life on the price of a rubber chicken in Tesco then we should all go to a poor east european country, back in the uk i was involved with a company who were relocating lock stock and barrel to Poland and Italy the team went to Poland to set up production, a meal in a top class restaurant with gallons of wine just over £8 a head the locals could not afford to eat there its purely for tourists ,i for one have a far better quality of life here in France than i could being retired in the uk, i agree lots of things cost less in the uk and France isnt for everyone and for those that cant settle in France if they are happier in the uk then thats their choice quality of life is priceless ,to quote my wife who has just returned from the uk after visiting family "I was not happy walking around in the city after 7pm , " A Place in the Sun has a lot to answer for in my opinion giving viewers the idea of moving abroad for the idylic life it doesnt always work the number of times people have said to me i saw that program last night France looks great we are thinking of buying a house where should i look i have never been, people moving to another world and it is another world here after watching a tv program is a recipe for disaster the dream is always greater than the reality, i am British will always be British but i am happy living in France for all its quirks, i may moan and grumble struggle to find a product but there is always an alternative here, if i want it from the uk i can order from net by the time i have added carriage its no cheaper than buying local

Carol, is your view not slightly jaded by your current unhappiness with France? I think you are correct re the price of food in some areas. But the stuff in the UK big stores tastes like poo. And who on earth drinks NZ Savi when you have Southern French wines on tap?

Buy locally and seasonally in France and you can almost duplicate weekly shopping bills. 1 KG of Courgettes and tomatoes came in at 2 Euros this morning. 4 melons for 2 Euros and a plateau of peaches for 4 Euros.

It does depend John....but then it does in France too.....Provence and Paris still going up...the rest of France going down. Our apartment in the UK is in Newbury, we are looking to buy a house here....I found 5 houses on Thursday when the local paper came out....new to the market....4 were under offer by Monday and the other one had a problem I, and the others were not willing to take on! The south east always a healthy market. Our house in the Dordogne is now around a quarter less in value, thus price on the market, than when we bought it 4 years ago...added to which we spent almost another quarter on repairs and updates!

Agree.....I have been here (UK...Newbury) for the last few weeks....and am loving the prices..! fresh whole chicken for £3.80...and the chicken weighs in old money 4lbs....ha! a 5lb chicken £5....edible tender sirloin £7 for two....and I am not complaining about Majestic Wines....and a fab New Zealand Sauvignon on offer...if you buy 12 bottles its only £6 a bottle for Ned...one of the very best Ive tasted...normally £9.99 a bottle. I am happy to argue the toss with anyone....but really dont enjoy being given verbals by someone who hasnt posted a photo...am also a little confused why someone who was born in France and lives here most of the time, needs to join a website called Survive France....just asking...