Alternative or Complementaire

French luxury sets a world standard. France’s Viticulture, perfume and fashion are icons of today’s infatuation with luxury.

However, you don’t have to spend very long in rural France to notice a fastidiousness about quality in the ordinary realm too. The principle of égalité strikes deep.

Although France is a super medicalised society, the French have not thrown out traditional remedies with the bathwater. In matters of health worthy traditions, that have all but disappeared in the English speaking world, are still a common part of life for many in France.

Here I will tell you a few of my favourites. At the end I will share a French pharmacy online that I find excellent.

An alternative luxury

In Britain something ‘alternative’: a natural soap, homoeopathy, essential oils or ‘paraben free’ is thought of as a chic and exclusive thing. Old fashioned remedies have paradoxically become ‘new wave’. Even alternative and a little bit pretentious, generally in the ‘first’ world.

In France natural health remedies and an elaborate range of dietary supplements are not considered alternative. They are complementaire. Cherished, certainly since the war, and maybe forever — and they are available in every town.