# Drinking French Water. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 21, 2019, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823 "2019-06-21T00:17:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/41 "2019-06-22T01:33:24Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > When I was a child (70s), I was under strict instructions from my parents not to drink the tap water when on holiday in France and Spain, for fear of stomach upsets. > > Whether they were being over cautious at the time, I couldn’t say (I also was banned from stroking any cats or dogs, for fear of contacting rabies), but the tap water throughout Europe is totally fine to drink. High standards, we can thank the EU for that. I was given exactly the same advice (except in the 80s, not the 70s) - don’t drink water from the tap and don’t touch the dogs in case you get rabies. It was considered common sense at the time that if you are travelling on the continent, you should avoid the tap water; it may be fine for the locals but if you are not used to it you risk getting an upset tummy. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/42 "2019-06-22T05:56:28Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > How long ago was high school? Are they old enough to have maybe traveled there sometime in the decade or so after WWII? The French had a couple years in the 1940s where their infrastructure got the Sergeant Hulka treatment in the movie Stripes. (“Blown up, Sir!”) There’s a realistic chance that the rule of thumb they were stating was based on real water quality issues in chunks of the country during the post-war rebuilding. > > Potentially your teacher was merely not up to date instead of wildly off base. I was in HS about 30 years ago. BTW, she brought it up as a reference to a word or phrase we had to learn. _eau minerale_(-sp?)–mineral water. When you go to France, order the mineral water, in other words. As many have said, it might have been an outdated reference (frankly I don’t even know if she had ever been to France). But as I said, this would have been the early 80’s, FWIW. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/43 "2019-06-22T08:04:20Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I don’t know the subject well enough to understand that. Do those ‘Microbiologiques’ categories include Cryptosporidium and Giardia? Yes, but the testing protocol and report focus on those bugs which are known to be trouble more frequently. They also check for stuff such as algae, which also do not get reported routinely. Note that this is also common in other kinds of analytical reports: the immense majority of Certificates of Analysis sent by factories to their clients do not include half the parameters being measured on the product itself. ---
**Author:** ![HeiLo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c77e96/32.png) [@HeiLo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeiLo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/44 "2019-06-22T10:02:57Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > For example: [Actual water quality report from SW Paris](http://www.eaudeparis.fr/fileadmin/contribution/UDI/fontaine_VERLAINE.pdf), updated monthly. Note the lack of detectable levels of harmful bacteria. So it’s not exactly Russian roulette drinking it. I don’t see that the corresponding New York report is published more than once per year, for comparison. To add to that, New York tap water can be quite the Russian roulette: > **[Inside City’s Water Tanks, Layers of Neglect (Published 2014)](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/nyregion/inside-citys-water-tanks-layers-of-neglect.html)** > > Many of New York City’s iconic water towers have not been cleaned or inspected in years, and regulations governing the tanks are rarely enforced, an examination shows. Or maybe pigeon roulette is the better term 🤔? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/45 "2019-06-22T13:40:57Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I have drunk tap water all over France, and have lived to tell about it. Moi aussi. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/46 "2019-06-22T15:29:28Z")
I don’t recall anyone getting sick\* on my school trip to France, and we were certainly not told to drink only bottled water, nor were we doing so. That would have been over fifty 11 and 12 year olds, plus assorted teachers, in the early '90s, in a fairly rural area. \*Aside from some teachers- and the coach driver- getting hangovers. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/47 "2019-06-23T06:47:54Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Back in the 40s and 50s, you were warned not drink the tap water in Europe. I think it wasn’t nearly as well controlled as it is now. Your French teacher has absorbed this old meme. Certainly in the 90’s tap water wasn’t safe to drink in all of ‘Europe’. I was warned off by the locals, but it was too late. I expect that is still the case in many places: I’ve been told that London some places have signs warning people not drink the tap water, not because the tap water is unsafe, but because the business can’t guarantee that it meets EU standards for drinking water. I think that in some places tap water still not the same as drinking water, and in some of those places, it will make you sick. Paris is parhaps the worlds biggest tourist city. I thik the tap water is mostly safe to drink there. or else lots of Americans would still be getting sick. I haven’t heard that is the case. ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/48 "2019-06-23T07:50:50Z")
Here in Krakow, and I think throughout all of Poland, even the poorest, most frugal elderly locals buy bottled water, a holdover from Communist days, when the tap water was in fact, not fit for drinking. It helps that bottled water is incredibly, unbelievably cheap here (starting at something like 15 cents per 2 liter bottle, when you buy 6 at once, and that is for a popular, “upscale” brand) and so it is something that will not break the bank of even those on an extremely limited budget. On the other hand, I virtually never buy bottled water, and think Krakow tap water is excellent, and I drink many glasses each & every single day, and have never tasted “off” flavors or had any kinds of stomach issues. Europe is too large to make any sweeping generalizations about. For example, Austrian (Vienna) & German (Munich, Dresden, Berlin, etc.) tap water tastes wonderful to me, even though I don’t think most locals drink it, but even I won’t drink tap water in cities in Italy, Portugal, Spain or Greece, but for all I know, in smaller towns or rural areas, it is just fine. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/49 "2019-06-23T17:48:13Z")
> [@Royal\_Nonesutch](#): > > Here in Krakow, and I think throughout all of Poland, even the poorest, most frugal elderly locals buy bottled water, a holdover from Communist days, when the tap water was in fact, not fit for drinking. > > It helps that bottled water is incredibly, unbelievably cheap here (starting at something like 15 cents per 2 liter bottle, when you buy 6 at once, and that is for a popular, “upscale” brand) and so it is something that will not break the bank of even those on an extremely limited budget. > > On the other hand, I virtually never buy bottled water, and think Krakow tap water is excellent, and I drink many glasses each & every single day, and have never tasted “off” flavors or had any kinds of stomach issues. > > Europe is too large to make any sweeping generalizations about. For example, Austrian (Vienna) & German (Munich, Dresden, Berlin, etc.) tap water tastes wonderful to me, even though I don’t think most locals drink it, but even I won’t drink tap water in cities in Italy, Portugal, Spain or Greece, but for all I know, in smaller towns or rural areas, it is just fine. The EU on the other hand is a great place to make sweeping generalizations about. Your chances of a tap anywhere in the EU not clearly marked “not for drinking” with unsafe water approach zero. Whatever people claim; the EU really rocks for regulating and funding stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/50 "2019-06-23T20:21:08Z")
By the way, a lot of bottled water is not distilled water or anything like that. It comes from springs or underground sources just like a lot of tap water. For example, one would have to be pretty thoroughly stupid to buy bottled water in Evian, though you could go to the public fountain and fill up a few jugs if you prefer it in a container. In other words, what comes in a bottle isn’t necessarily more pure than what comes out of the tap, especially when both of them are subject to the same rigorous controls. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/51 "2019-06-23T20:46:41Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Are minerals added to the desalinated seawater, or is it basically just pure distilled water? Because I’ve heard that distilled water tastes sort of “flat”, since we’re used to water with minerals in it. Desalinated usually means “forced through filters that remove most of the salt” rather than “distilled”. It’s cheaper to do that than distilling. I believe there are places that distill seawater, but most just filter. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/52 "2019-06-23T22:20:10Z")
> [@HeiLo](#): > > To add to that, New York tap water can be quite the Russian roulette: > [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/nyregion/inside-citys-water-tanks-layers-of-neglect.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/nyregion/inside-citys-water-tanks-layers-of-neglect.html) > > Or maybe pigeon roulette is the better term 🤔? To be fair to New York City, that story doesn’t address the quality of New York City drinking water. It’s about what happens to that (quite good, actually) water when it is stored in old, improperly maintained tanks. If the building in which you are drinking water from the tap doesn’t have a rooftop tank, this isn’t something you have to worry about. Just look up – you’ll see the tank. They’re quite large. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/53 "2019-06-24T01:11:58Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > In other words, what comes in a bottle isn’t necessarily more pure than what comes out of the tap, especially when both of them are subject to the same rigorous controls. Just this month I saw a press report of some authority complaining that bottled water was /not/ subject to the same rigorous controls, and some didn’t meet tap water standards. I can not remember at all which authority, which country, which continent I saw reported. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/54 "2019-06-24T02:55:14Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I’ve been told that London some places have signs warning people not drink the tap water, not because the tap water is unsafe, but because the business can’t guarantee that it meets EU standards for drinking water. I think that in some places tap water still not the same as drinking water, and in some of those places, it will make you sick. You’ll certainly find warnings in London about particular supplies not being drinking water, but I suspect you’re arguably misinterpreting why. In my experience, taps labelled as such are ones in toilets, often in work places. Its a Health and Safety thing. The water’s probably fine, but the surrounding environment? There will be taps elsewhere that you can more safely drink from, so the warnings are just there to deter anyone from using these particular ones. As far as I can see, there’s just the one fundamental water supply to UK domestic premises and businesses. Which is drinkable. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/55 "2019-06-24T03:07:48Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Certainly in the 90’s tap water wasn’t safe to drink in all of ‘Europe’. I was warned off by the locals, but it was too late. I expect that is still the case in many places: I’ve been told that London some places have signs warning people not drink the tap water, not because the tap water is unsafe, but because the business can’t guarantee that it meets EU standards for drinking water. I think that in some places tap water still not the same as drinking water, and in some of those places, it will make you sick. > > Paris is parhaps the worlds biggest tourist city. I thik the tap water is mostly safe to drink there. or else lots of Americans would still be getting sick. I haven’t heard that is the case. I drank tap water in France and Germany and England in the 80s, but avoided it in Italy, which didn’t then have safe water (I was told.) I also drank a lot of Parisian tap water a couple of years ago. It’s fine. Oddly, the only place I ever got tourist tummy was Tokyo. But I wasn’t very sick, I just had to visit restrooms frequently for a couple of days. When I returned to Japan a couple of years ago I drank lots of tap water and had no problems. I suppose my system remembered how to cope with it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/56 "2019-06-24T11:02:17Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Desalinated usually means “forced through filters that remove most of the salt” rather than “distilled”. It’s cheaper to do that than distilling. I believe there are places that distill seawater, but most just filter. The filters aren’t just physical filters, like you’d use to sieve out sand: they’re ion-exchange cartridges. They specifically remove ions, so salts; mainly NaCl simply because that’s what the water has most of, but if you feed them salt with a ton of NaCO3 instead they’ll remove your NaCO3. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/57 "2019-06-24T13:04:13Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The filters aren’t just physical filters, like you’d use to sieve out sand: they’re ion-exchange cartridges. They specifically remove ions, so salts; mainly NaCl simply because that’s what the water has most of, but if you feed them salt with a ton of NaCO3 instead they’ll remove your NaCO3. While true it’s not operating by size exclusion, RO does not use IE cartridges. It’s solvent (water) diffusion process ---
**Author:** ![FollowMeDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6a8cbe/32.png) [@FollowMeDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FollowMeDown)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/58 "2019-06-24T13:14:29Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > When I was a child (70s), I was under strict instructions from my parents not to drink the tap water when on holiday in France and Spain, for fear of stomach upsets. > > Whether they were being over cautious at the time, I couldn’t say (I also was banned from stroking any cats or dogs, for fear of contacting rabies), but the tap water throughout Europe is totally fine to drink. High standards, we can thank the EU for that. I hope when I’m in my 70’s I’ll still think of myself as a child too. I doubt it, but i’m inspired.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/59 "2019-06-24T17:40:43Z")
> [@Galwegian](#): > > Not sure about France, and maybe Nava can confirm this, but at least in the Canary Islands we have been advised not to drink tap water. > > The reason is not because of bacterial contaminants, but rather that it is desalinated seawater. While safe to drink, it would taste off to our palates as there is still some residual salt present. Local residents certainly drink it as they are used to the taste. It depends on the town and even on the district, for instance, in Madrid the quarters served by the [Canal de Isabel II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_de_Isabel_II) automatically were more sought after when it was built in the 19th Century: the mothers soon realized that their children had fewer and less severe diarrhoea so they tended to move there. Even today, madrileños are aware of where their water comes from, as the Canal de Isabel II feeds from different rivers for the different quarters and not all the water has the same quality and taste. The quarters with better water are in general more expensive. Barcelona, on the other hand, has perfectly safe water, but it tastes bitter, I think because of dissolved potassium. So the catalans have grown fond of their Vichy Catalán, sparkring water which also tastes slightly bitter but comes in bottles. In Berlin the water is quite hard, but of excellent quality. Germans like sparkling water, thus in the last 30 years or so the machines that infuse CO2 in water have become popular: you take plain tap water, a CO2 cartridge, this thingy, and hey presto! you have sparkling water without having to schlepp it up the stairs and very ecologocal too, as you don’t need the plastic bottles (never mind the metal CO2 cartridges - that does not count). If you rent a country house in France (or elsewhere) you should let the tap and the shower run for some time, otherwise you risk leggionaries’ disease, amoebas or worse: you simply don’t know how long the water has been stagnant in the pipes. The same happens in Strasburg, in France, when the European Parliament convenes for a week once a month. The building being empty and unused for three weeks a month, the water in the toilets and the kitchen has to run for a while until the yuck from the plumbing is washed out and fresh water sets in. The coffee on mondays is hideous, on thuesday you can drink it again. But in general water quality in Europe is safe. Only sometimes it tastes funny, but it is not dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823/60 "2019-06-24T18:45:34Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > You’ll certainly find warnings in London about particular supplies not being drinking water, but I suspect you’re arguably misinterpreting why. > > As far as I can see, there’s just the one fundamental water supply to UK domestic premises and businesses. Which is drinkable. Yes, there is only one water supply, but… In the UK water is only considered drinkable if it comes from the rising main- ie the pipe that comes into the building, so the water has not been through a storage tank which might have heaven knows what in it. In my Victorian house the kitchen tap comes from the rising main, and so does the tap in the bathroom basin. (a later addition- originally there was no bathroom and an outside toilet) In public toilets, workplaces etc the water will have been through a tank and is so labelled ‘not for drinking’. Nonetheless I have drunk such water _in extremis_ and never had a problem. Not sure when that started but it was certainly a thing in 1970. Likewise I have drunk tap water all over Europe, USA, Canada etc and no issues. But a mouthful of salad eaten by mistake in Egypt had me ill within an hour. The dirtiest place I’ve ever been; frankly disgusting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-french-water/835823.md?page=4)