it's nearly impossible to find trial size bottles of anything. it's nice to have a little bottle of shampoo or shower gel for traveling, but most things come in regular sizes, and it's difficult to find small, empty plastic bottles to fill with whatever for the road.
i can't buy magazines or aspirin at grocery stores. the magazines i don't mind; it's rare that i buy a french magazine anyway because it's work to read. i have bought the occasional french "glamour" because they're small (a little bigger than "reader's digest"), they're not too difficult to read and they're only a euro fifty. it's too bad about the aspirin, though.
on one hand, i like how each store is specialized. it's fun hunting for stuff and each pharmacy is usually family-run and very helpful and friendly, even to a non-native speaker. on the other hand... maybe it's because i'm from the land of convenience-- i want to be able to go to a store and find all the things i'm looking for. there are huge stores like wal-mart here and they offer all sorts of things (except for aspirin and mags) but they're far away, making their convenience inconvenient.