Considering that post is well out of date, do you really need to be picky?
Free glasses if you qualify.
We also have progressive lenses and certain treatments to the lenses, so we pay for those.
Jim found that he had a lazy right eye and needed an upgrade to his everyday prescription and a special one for working on the computer.
He used old frames to bring down the cost.
Posted that earlier Tory! But it only works if you have a mutuelle and are happy with the frames on offer. A limited choice.
Sorry missed that Jane!
I haven’t ever had a proper pair of glasses, nor been to an optomatrist (sp) (well only in Oz). Need to start from scratch.
Still not clear on what i need to do???
You need to get a prescription first to get everything refunded, so yes you need to get to the opthmo first! X
And if you don’t get there, check your mutuelle small print! I’ve just picked up a new pair that cost over 600!! Luckily I only had 20€ to pay!
It may have last had a post in '17 but Angel Railing came back to it and indeed there have been changes, as she guessed and lots more useful info has been exchanged.
And I was not being picky - I genuinely do not understand that sentence. I have read it a number of times and can make no sense of it.
But do you need to get a prescription from an opthmo first or can it just be from your médicin traitant? That is what I was led to believe by a french friend, but haven’t tried it yet. It seemed that with a normal prescription you can get an eye test at the opticians and then have glasses made. You don’t of course get all the other check, but if all you want is glasses…
And that is what I thought others were saying too on this thread - I’m very confused 
maybe I’ll stick with my Action reading glasses!
Unfortunately my experience of Lunnette pour Tous was very different. I felt I was very misled by their advertising - 10€ 10 minutes! So I travelled to Bordeaux, which costs about 50 € by the time I take in petrol and tolls. I tried to telephone beforehand but the telephone just directs you to their website for a (free) appointment. While I waited, I wandered round looking at the frames - yes, fine, there were a few for 10€ but most were 30€ and 50€. The woman who tested my eyes was charming and I asked her to confirm that I could wait for the glasses and she said it depends and varifocals take several days. I then said that it would not be worth my while having 2 visits because that would be 100 € of travel costs and so I would be happy to pay for the test and take away a prescription. After the eye test, which went fine, she handed me over to a colleague who asked her if she had explained about the frais. She said no. Suddenly I find we are not talking about 10€ but the cost of EACH lens - 25€ for a single focus. And (despite their advertising) it’s now 50€ (and upwards) plus whatever you pay for the frame - probably 50€ to get anything half decent. I said I would be happy to pay for the eye test so that I could take the prescription away and buy online and he refused to let me have it. So I took out of my bag the glasses I bought online and said loudly - these glasses cost 30€ in total and left the shop. At getting on for 100€ plus the travel costs, I’m better off using our local optical center in Marmande who are currently offering unifocal glasses all in for 39€.
Obviously I was being very naive thinking I could really buy glasses in France for 10€ from an opticians - I can buy reading glasses at the price from Lidl. But they did nothing to abuse me of that fact from their advertising. Of course caveat emptor!
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I have - actually the other way round (eye test at opticians first, then médicin traitant for prescription and hence reimbursement). The doctor did raise his eyebrows - it was new to him - but understood that locally there are long delays for opthmo appoinments, so he went along with it.
(Sorry Tory - should have been a reply to Jane - don’t know how i did that!)
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The optician cannot give you a test for eye health, but Macron is trying to get this changed, but how long it will take is anybody’s guess.
If you have never visited an optician may I suggest that you book an appointment with an opthalmologue so that you know the state of the health of your eyes. Also many other conditions can be picked up by them. The opthalmologue will then issue the prescription for you, which in France lasts for three years. If you need a change of lenses in that time, or you break your glasses, the optician can conduct your test on that existing prescription.
In UK you do get an examination for the heath of your eyes, glaucoma etc but here it is done by a more highly qualifies person, ie a specialist.
Glasses are expensive if you need more than standard lenses. Our chemist does a range of frames
which are not expensive.
Also you need to see what repayment you will get from your Mutuelle.
The last glasses (cheapest frames possible) that I got in the UK cost nearly £400 and absolutely no refunds on that so I’m not expecting miracles here. I just want to see better 
One of the things I’ve learned in the last year is that an ordonnance is NOT necessarily a prescription as we would understand it in the UK. For example, having gone to an audiologue for a prescription so I could replace my hearing aids, I found that the ordonnance effectively said “Please supply this lady with hearing aids” which, in my view, was a bit of a waste of a 50euro consultation fee. It sounds like the “prescription” for glassses in somewhat similar as the optician will actually do the detailed eye tests?
I have been using reading glasses for about 15 years now. I have never had any dealings with a qualified ‘eye person’ for readers. Shops that sell glasses usually have a stand of ‘off the peg’ readers and a piece of text printed in various sizes for you to peer at. The best readers I ever had were from a shop in Cahors - carbon fibre frames, excellent quality lenses. Walked in on spec [sic]. Brillaint.
“a proper test instead of guessing…” Looking at a piece of text and judging whether you can read it comfortably isn’t guessing, in my book. Plain vanilla readers are just magnifying lenses. You work up the scale till you find the minimum magnification that allows you to read comfortably. Then you choose a style and your done. I’ve been on x 2.5 for a number of years now. When I break them or the lenses get too scratched, I buy more on Amazon or eBay.
For some specialised activities - fly tying, for example - I go up to x3 or x3.5. I keep x3s in the car for map reading.
I guess you can lash out and get readers in real glass, scratchproof, non-reflective - the mutt’s nuts - but simply for reading? Save your dosh for scrip lenses.
This is true, but if you are young and in reasonable health and just need new glasses then perhaps other priorities for heard earned cash?
Although the test given here by opthalmo’s are more rigorous than in UK I found so agree it’s worth doing one day. Just not necessary if all you want to do is change glasses.
Off the shelf is also ok if the sight on both your eyes is the same!
OH has damage to the back of his eyes - not macular degeneration but something similar which at the moment is stable. I have cataracts. The benefit of the opthalmos here is that they can monitor such conditions. They ask us to go annually so they can keep an eye (groan) on us.
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Yes, me too…but I think Tory is probably in the age bracket where a year or two extra between checks is not particularly critical. I don’t think I bothered until I was nearly 50 (and my mother was diagnosed with macular degeneration).
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I am myopic + astigmatic in one eye and amblyopic in the other, and doubtless presbytia is just around the corner for both ie my eyes are rubbish each in its own quaint way.
I go to my ophtalmologiste about every 18 months, he checks my vision, eyeball pressure and has a look inside my eyeball as well and then if the prescription has changed I get my specs from Les Opticiens Mutualistes.
My all-singing all-dancing supersnazzy lenses are free every 2 years or sooner if they have changed, frames are all prices from under 20€ to stratospheric.