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This article will review changes introduced into training for general practitioners in France. It will examine how these changes affected the creation of a “general medicine” specialisation on one hand, and the renewal of the health care service on the other. The article will rely on two main sources : the findings of a long-term ethnographic survey of general medicine teaching staff and the monitoring of a cohort of former interns now working as general practitioners. The first part of this article will focus on the design of this specific general medicine-training programme, which spearheads the pedagogical aspect. The second part will examine young doctors’ reaction to this programme at the beginning of their careers – during and after their internships. The article also describes how the training establishments concerned dealt with difficulties stabilising these pedagogical methods and also providing a definition of general medicine in line with societal changes and the medical work market.