Paris Tap Water

[menton1]

The City of Paris has begun a campaign to get Parisians to drink more tap water. At a cost 200x cheaper than bottled water, the campaign has also included Mayor Delanoe. A coupon in the newspapers or off the internet can be redeemed at City Hall for a free Pierre Cardin carafe to encourage consumption. Lines at the Hotel de Ville were supposed to be long.

The municipal water supply company, Eau de Paris, claims that not only is the water very safe, it also tastes as good as the bottled types. I don't know about that, but paris tap water does have a fairly neutral taste and the health standards are very high. Certainly it is very acceptable.

I have noticed that in the last 5-6 years, restaurants are also serving more tap water. It is no longer taboo to ask for tap water in French restaurants; many of them bring the water in beautiful carafes, some in pitchers, some in wine-type bottles-- but always with flair!

Can anyone get me that Pierre Cardin carafe?

Edited March 23, 2005 by menton1 (log)

[John Talbott]

Can anyone get me that Pierre Cardin carafe? 

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Zurban ran a photo of the carafe three weeks ago and at the time I searched the web unsuccessfully for a means of buying/getting one.

Then yesterday there apparently were only 10,000 of them available at the Hotel de Ville and the TV showed long lines.

I suspect given the success, they'll eventually be on sale elsewhere.

[menton1]

I'd like to hear about some of the member's experiences at restaurants when they have ordered tap water... I never did, until about 6 years ago, and now it is a widely accepted practice. Most of the restaurants place a "pichet" or carafe on the table, and some of them are quite beautiful.

Can you please relate your experiences when you have requested "un carafe d'eau", or whether you have hesitations about doing so?

[David Lebovitz]

The water in Paris is full of calcium. Handwashed glassware has white chaulky streaks; you need to add Calgon (which I'm told is bad for the environment) into your laundry to soften the water and 'sel' in your dishwasher as well (some people staying in my apartment didn't use sel and my glasses got a serious white calcium build-up that was not remedied by washing them in vinegar, or salt, or Calgon), and once a year I need to get my system flushed in my apartment since the calcium build-up gets really bad and decreases water pressure.

So I wonder what all that calcium in our systems from the tap water is doing?

A friend's doctor here diagnosed him with a calcium build-up in his, um, internal system and told him to drink Vichy water (ick!) to break it up.

While I do order tap water often in restaurants, I use a Brita filter at home and drink Badoit.

But I would love one of those carafes!

David L.

[chefzadi]

Can you please relate your experiences when you have requested "un carafe d'eau", or whether you have hesitations about doing so?

I have no hesitation about doing this. At the top tier places, the customer is 'expected' to order bottled water. Otherwise, ordering tap is perfectly acceptable. It's the Americans who drink all that French bottled water. Seriously though, you'll find that most French drink tap water at home and at restaurants.

It is no longer taboo to ask for tap water in French restaurants; many of them bring the water in beautiful carafes, some in pitchers, some in wine-type bottles-- but always with flair!

When was it ever taboo? Sometimes they like to push bottled water to up the tab. But it is perfectly fine to order tap and they know it.

[Felice]

Can you please relate your experiences when you have requested "un carafe d'eau", or whether you have hesitations about doing so?

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I don't really care for the taste of water in Paris, but will drink it if I don't have any bottled at home and have no hesitation about ordering it either.

[John Talbott]

The water in Paris is full of calcium.

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Indeed. If you go to their website, essentially, they say you get all the daily calcium you need from the Paris water. Good/bad? I like it.

And you do need sel and Anticalc in the washing processes.

So.....?

Today at Dominque Bouchet we (again) ordered a carafe and no problem.

[Carlsbad]

If I had more than a week or two in Paris every year or two, which I don't, I would drink the tap water. But I can't get Badoit here for less than an arm and a leg, so I order it if the restaurant has it, and so many do. Maybe it's my imagination, but Badoit tastes really good. Perhaps it's age, but I like a little sparkle in my water, too.

[SuzySushi]

Can you please relate your experiences when you have requested "un carafe d'eau", or whether you have hesitations about doing so?

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My husband and I never had any hesitations ordering "un carafe d'eau" anywhere in France. Whenever we shopped in a supermarche or hypermarche, however, we'd stock up on bottles of Volvic, which is one of the best bottled waters I've tasted anythere.

[zeitoun]

I grew up drinking bottled water in Paris just because i remember as a kid looking at the color of the Seine river in disgust and wondering to myself, now who in the world would want to drink from this???

Of course, I've learned a thing or two about parisian tap water since then... But seriously though, my take on it is that if you can buy bottled water such as Evian, Vittel, Contrex, Badoit at a reasonable price in France, why drink water that is not as good? I personaly never ordered a carafe in Paris simply because i never liked the taste of parisian tap water, the only tap water i've ever had was probably at the little "fontaines d'eau potable" you'll find in certain Parisian parks.

Ironically, I find the quality and taste of tap water here in NY far superior to the one in Paris, so I only drink tap in NY. Besides, I refuse to pay an outrageous $3 for a bottle of vittel or even $1 for poland spring which to me does not taste good at all.

Edited March 25, 2005 by zeitoun (log)

[Ptipois]

Parisians are unequal when it comes to the taste of their tap water. Some arrondissements are blessed with natural sources (in the 16e, notably), but most are left with filtered Seine water which can go from okay to drink to plain yucky at times. No Cardin carafe is going to change this. I use Brita-filtered tap water for tea and coffee and I drink bottled water.

[chefzadi]

Parisians are unequal when it comes to the taste of their tap water. Some arrondissements are blessed with natural sources (in the 16e, notably), but most are left with filtered Seine water which can go from okay to drink to plain yucky at times. No Cardin carafe is going to change this. I use Brita-filtered tap water for tea and coffee and I drink bottled water.

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I guess you don't live in the 16th. I think alot of restaurants have water filters.

[Ptipois]

I guess you don't live in the 16th.   

Wherever I live, that doesn't make any difference.

I think alot of restaurants have water filters.

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Sometimes I think they have filters just to make the water taste worse.

[chefzadi]

Sometimes I think they have filters just to make the water taste worse.

Maybe you should tell them to use a Brita filter.

[Ptipois]

Maybe you should tell them to use a Brita filter.

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Maybe I should just order Badoit

[chefzadi]

Maybe you should tell them to use a Brita filter.

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Maybe I should just order Badoit

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I suppose if you want sparkling mineral water Brita just won't do.

Although I hear that if you add 1/10th of an alka seltzer tablet to sparkletts water the effect is the same.

[menton1]

Although I hear that if you add 1/10th of an alka seltzer tablet to sparkletts water the effect is the same.

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I think I would stick with Badoit!!

P.S. Ever notice how the bottles that the mineral water comes in in France are so much more beautiful than the plastic varieties we have here in the US? Badoit has that long-necked bottle with the embossed glass on top.

[Culinista]

We lived in the 17th near Ternes, and let me tell you, the water was HORRIBLE. If you made tea or coffee with unfiltered water, you'd notice a nasty scumlike substance floating on the surface.

When we first moved to Paris, I took a picture of a soldier washing his tank before the Bastille Day parade with Evian. I thought it was yet another example of extravagant French idiosyncracy, but I soon understood why. After a few weeks of showering in Eau de Paris, my hair was hopelessly sticky. I was saved from a huge Evian bill when I discovered I could rinse with the distilled water collected from the clothes dryer reservoir.

After tasting a lot of bottled waters, we settled on Volvic for still and Chateldon for sparkling.

Here in Finland, no one drinks bottled water. In the country, many of the lakes and rivers are clean enough to drink from untreated.

[chefzadi]

I don't remember the water being so bad when I lived there or when I visited there (which was fairly recent, maybe we just didn't stay in the areas with bad water.)

I know that even in the Beaujolais the Saone is not what it used to be when I was a kid.

[Ptipois]

I don't remember the water being so bad when I lived there or when I visited there (which was fairly recent, maybe we just didn't stay in the areas with bad water.)

The quality of the filtered Seine water that comes through the faucets varies throughout the year. It is generally OK during Winter, and it can get terrible sometimes in the Summer.

[John Talbott]

I guess you don't live in the 16th.    I think alot of restaurants have water filters.

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I think this is on topic.

We live in the 18th and at the urging of a downstair's neighbor who swears they work, installed a polarization device on our inflow water pipe years ago. We've actually had two, one from the UK that operated on line current; the second, a magnetic gizmo from the USA.

I showed the info on one to an engineer friend in the States and between guffaws, he said it was the closest thing to witchcraft he'd encountered in years.

Anybody know if they work? (I still have to decalc my espresso machine, scrub my toilet, put decalc in my washing machine, etc. periodically)

I stock bottled water but as often as not just grab a glass of tap water when thirsty and I guess I'm not so offended as to always go for the bottled.

[Felice]

Parisians are unequal when it comes to the taste of their tap water. Some arrondissements are blessed with natural sources (in the 16e, notably),

Wow, that's really interesting. I've just moved to the 11th from the 6th and thought I noticed a difference in the water, but figured it was just my imagination. Perhaps it is better in the 11th

[Duncan]

We live in the 18th and at the urging of a downstair's neighbor who swears they work, installed a polarization device on our inflow water pipe years ago.  We've actually had two, one from the UK that operated on line current; the second, a magnetic gizmo from the USA.

I showed the info on one to an engineer friend in the States and between guffaws, he said it was the closest thing to witchcraft he'd encountered in years.

Anybody know if they work?

I found a website which, if you believe them, at least gives a plausible explanation how such devices might work. I have no idea whether it is any way accurate, but it maybe takes the device out of the realms of black magic. Basically they claim that the magnetic field induces precipitation and the resulting crystals having been prevented from attaching to the pipe wall when they form remain in suspension. See their website.

It all sounds very plausible although the last bit:

ETC was the first company in the world to demonstrate publicly a change in treated hard water, whereby to date nobody else has managed to even measure a chemical change after treatment.

might be taken to imply that if nobody else can reproduce their measurements perhaps the effect doesn't exist.

[John Talbott]

I found a website which, if you believe them, at least gives a plausible explanation how such devices might work.

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Yes, that's exactly the picture I showed to my engineer friend.

[scordelia]

I'd like to hear about some of the member's experiences at restaurants when they have ordered tap water...  I never did, until about 6 years ago, and now it is a widely accepted practice.  Most of the restaurants place a "pichet" or carafe on the table, and some of them are quite beautiful.

Can you please relate your experiences when you have requested "un carafe d'eau", or whether you have hesitations about doing so?

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I never hesitated to order regular tap water, even at fairly fancy places. No rude stares or funny looks. The water always came chilled in a lovely carafe or pitcher.

Edited April 9, 2005 by scordelia (log)