Many people call syphilis the “French disease” (incidentally, the same label got stuck on postmodernism too). But the real French disease has nothing to do with the body. It’s a condition of the mind: hypochondria. If you’ve ever wondered why “The Imaginary Invalid” was written by Molière (1622-1673) and not Shakespeare or Cervantes, all you need to do is walk the streets of Paris.
You’ll find a neon sign shaped like a green cross on almost every street corner, the symbol of French pharmacies, and if you count carefully, you’ll discover there are more pharmacies in Paris than there are boulangeries. The French love affair with pharmacy and medicine goes back centuries, and during your visit to Paris, you can discover several old pharmacies, with real pharmacists, that played an important role in French history.
Where Is the Oldest Pharmacy in Paris?
The oldest pharmacy in Paris still in business stands at 115 Rue Saint-Honoré, and as far as anyone knows, it opened around 1715, maybe even earlier. This is where the Swedish count Fersen, a close friend of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), bought invisible ink so he could write to her in secret while she was imprisoned at the Conciergerie. He also tried to help the queen escape, but in vain. On October 16, 1793, the cart carrying those condemned to death passed by here on its way to what was then called Place de la Révolution, which we know today as Place de la Concorde.
At number 93 on the same street stood another pharmacy called Au Bourdon d’Or, which closed its doors in mourning that same day. This place already existed in 1610, and it’s where King Henri IV (r. 1589-1610) was brought after he was stabbed to death by Ravaillac on the nearby Rue de la Ferronnerie. And speaking of pharmacies and hypochondriacs, if you’re already in the area, walk a few steps to 2 Rue Sauval, where you’ll find the site of the house where Molière was born, the man who, as I mentioned, wrote “The Imaginary Invalid.”
The Pharmacy That Cooked Up Chocolate
Our journey in the footsteps of Paris’s pharmacists now takes us to the Left Bank, toward Saint-Germain. Here, at 30 Rue des Saints-Pères, you’ll find the spot where pharmacy met chocolate. At this address stands, to this day, the shop Debauve et Gallais, which happens to be the oldest chocolate shop in Paris.
The shop was opened by the royal pharmacist Sulpice Debauve (1757-1836) in 1800, though he had already become famous earlier for inventing chocolate coins. Legend has it that it all started when Marie Antoinette complained to him that she didn’t like the taste of the medicine she had to take. In response, Debauve decided to take the medicine and mix it with cocoa and sugar, then pour the paste into a coin-shaped mold.
The chocolate coins were a big hit at the royal court, but after the French Revolution, when he lost his royal patrons, Debauve had to strike out on his own and opened his chocolate shop in 1800. The shop did very well and received orders from Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. The current building on Rue des Saints-Pères was built by Percier and Fontaine in the Greco-Roman style, which was very popular during Napoleon’s era.
In this shop, Debauve continued selling his chocolate coins, and along the way invented “diet chocolate,” something of an oxymoron if you ask me, made from almond milk, vanilla, and water infused with orange blossoms. In 1823, Debauve’s nephew Charles Gallais (1787-1838), also a pharmacist by trade, joined him, and the shop took on its current name. The shop still exists today and sells excellent chocolates.
And finally, let’s close our short journey through the maze of hypochondria and Parisian pharmacies with a song on the subject. The song “Hypocondre” is performed by Aldebert, one of my favorite French singers, though not a widely known one. You can listen to the song below, about a hypochondriac whom nobody believes is really sick…
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