Adventures with French Health Care, Auxonne, Aug 8-10

Actually, lack of adventures. 

Auxonne’s municipal moorings are three 25 meter pontoons on the river, complete with water and power, all free. When we arrived about 4:30 pm, there was room on one of the pontoons but also a notice that they would begin working on the pontoon the next day. We tied up anyway. Luckily, shortly after, one of the boats on another pontoon left and we shifted to the open space. The next day they began removing and replacing the deck boards on the original pontoon about 8 am. We were glad we moved.

My throat had not improved. It was so sore it was making it difficult to eat so something was going to have to be done. When one of the tourist office people came down to the dock to sort out the power for another boater, I asked her about seeing a doctor. She said the office was now closed but if I came by in the morning they’d help me out. 

Wednesday morning first thing, Cathy Jo and I walked up to the tourist office and asked the young woman about seeing a doctor for my throat. She made a phone call and I had an appointment scheduled for the next morning. We went back to the boat and spent the day resting; both of us still feeling under the weather. 

Wednesday morning right at the appointed time, Dr. Tamara Baconnet came into the waiting room and ushered me (and my translator, Cathy Jo) into her office. She looked down my throat and did the usual cursory examination and prescribed some antibiotics. She asked if we had insurance and, though we do, we didn’t want to deal with the hassle for a simple doctor’s visit (it’s a reimbursement policy) so we just paid the €25 office visit fee and headed off to the pharmacy. An 8 day course of amoxicillin set us back a whole €15. We love the French health care system!

Thursday morning we made our usual departure about 9. After about 20 k on the Saone, a river we’ve traveled many times, we would enter the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne, the Canal between Champagne and Burgundy which connects the Saone and the Marne Rivers, one of the few canals in northern France we haven’t used.