Comment<\/p>\n
From fountains to spas, water shapes everyday French life<\/p>\n
\n Visitors to Paris in the recent heatwaves may have come across the Eau de Paris website, which maps 1,300 free public water points
\n Oliverouge 3\/Shutterstock\n <\/p>\n
As a former waterways journalist, I once wrote a book on all the ways to enjoy wet stuff in the UK. It was called Just Add Water and promised \u2018over 100 ways to relax and recharge\u2019 with it.<\/p>\n
I would never dare such a thing in France \u2013 a country whose imagination when it comes to watery possibility is seemingly unbounded.<\/p>\n
Here, simply asking for something like a Perrier opens a Pandora\u2019s box: tr\u00e8s p\u00e9tillante ou un peu p\u00e9tillante? Delicately fruit-flavoured or full-on mineral oomph?\u00a0<\/p>\n
De Gaulle famously barked: \u201cHow can you govern a country that has 246 types of cheese?\u201d You could demand the same of its dizzying spectrum of drinking waters. According to government statistics, France has around a hundred sources exploited for commercial use. Compare this to my native England, where just 20 are listed on the gov.uk website.<\/p>\n
Even tap water is perceptibly pimped up. Visitors to Paris in the recent heatwaves may have come across the Eau de Paris website, which maps 1,300 free public water points to refill drinking bottles, including 17 that dispense sparkling water. <\/p>\n
But pay attention to the fountains themselves, which range in sculptural grandeur from the iconic cast-iron-and-caryatid Wallace ones to contemporary silhouettes, balled fists, and the sleekly minimalist \u2018Arceau\u2019 model for children and people with reduced mobility.<\/p>\n