Public Drinking Fountains in Paris

When we were in Paris for the Tour de France, our niece spotted one of the historic Wallace Drinking Fountains. There are 67 of them throughout the city and they serve up a running stream of fresh water. I had no idea these existed! I’m so glad Ruth did. It was a fun little discovery to make — especially on a hot day.

Have you ever made an unexpected little discovery in your town or while you traveled? That sort of thing makes me happy for days.

23 thoughts on “Public Drinking Fountains in Paris”

  1. There are also fun fountains in Rome called the Nasoni fountains. You can se the spout to fill water bottles or buckets, but if you want to drink out of them like a water fountain you just put your finger over the bottom of the “nose and water spouts out through the top. I thought those were genius!

  2. Ah-HA! I’ve been in Paris for a month now and I’ve wondered about these things. I’ve been tempted to drink from them but I was afraid they were regular old fountains, circulating dirty water. Good to know. :)

  3. Great find ! Super cute fountains ..
    I am following your blog for a while now and really love it…..you and your husband are lovely! And you look very happy together :) I am very impressed that you are able to spend so much time blogging while managing six children as well! You are very talented… keep it up! Thanks for the giveaways too..!

    Seema

  4. When we were in Fredericksburg last month we discovered just how many “animal” things are hidden all over the town. We did a photo-scavenger hunt; they were everywhere! Haven’t popped over in a while but saw you guys on HHInternational last night. So cute! You come across so warm and genial on tv!

  5. How neat. I’ve been to Paris several times and never noticed them. I’ll look next time I go (not that it will be anytime soon :( ).

  6. I love these! We found some fabulous drinking fountains when we visited Lyons as well. One moved and had such a brilliant use of both the male and female form. Truly works of art!

  7. While we were traveling in Switzerland, we found out that all cow troughs (they have a spout above where the cows can reach) and fountains had safe drinking water. While hiking, this was a wonderful thing to know!

  8. We saw several when we were in Paris, but I never saw anyone drink out of them. Like Angela I was unconvinced they had clean water in them so we never drank out of one.

  9. They have these fantastic wooden water fountains all over Switzerland, I was so glad that our first day touring with my friend, she said, “Whenever you see one like this, it’s totally fresh clean water!” It was always a great place to stop and refill our water bottles while traveling!

  10. ellen van manen-de boer

    you should check out the bright red (!!!) one in chinatown (13th arr.) someone wrote; “why am I not green”
    and then you could visit the buddist temple (in a garage) and TANg frères, the coolest and biggest chinese supermarkt in Paris

  11. Very cool- I know you can drink out of the fountains on all over in Switzerland, but thought France’s fountains weren’t potable. Good to know in case we’re ever lucky enough to make it back to Paris.

  12. Last summer, I saw several of these in Paris and really just thought they were decorative fountains, but not for drinking, until I saw someone fill up their water bottle. So, I filled up my water bottle, too. The water was really good and cold, just perfect for a hot day in Paris.

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