Once upon a time, I lost my insulin and syringes in paris on my way to cannes when on vacation. I discovered this around dinnertime with a week left on my vacation. I was in trouble. I had no prescription on me.
I explained my predicament to the hotel concierge, and they explained how my problem could be resolved.
1. Take a taxi to the hospital. Concierge called the taxi.
2. Taxi dropped me off at the hospital where I explained my situation to a nurse who didn’t speak english, and I didn’t speak french. Someone in the waiting room acted as the translator. Nurse wrote me a prescription without any hassle. Just took my word (translated) for it.
3. A security guy at the hospital called me a taxi to go to the police station. Since it was after hours, the police were the only people authorized to access a pharmacy.
4. I went to the police station and explain my predicament. The cop called the pharmacy and called a taxi for me.
5. Taxi took me to the pharmacy and opened it just for me and sold me my two types of insulin.
6. I walked went to dinner astounded that this entire process took less time than my normal visit to my endocrinologist.
Charge for hospital to write me a prescription = $0
Charge for cop to call the pharmacy = $0
charge for pharmacy to sell me my two types of insulin = $10
Anyone complaining about the french model or french service is a fool.