bottled water

[Tourangelle]

This is perhaps more of a cultural question than a food one, but as I saw my elderly neighbour pulling 6 bottles of water home again today, it really made me think, what's wrong with the tap?  I drink the tap water, often putting it in the fridge first, and it's fine. I just wonder whether other people out there find this widespread purchasing of eau de source  strange or if anybody has gone over to buying their water in the supermarket, like the French and if so why?

[Dick Smith]

We had to buy all our drinking and cooking water until we had mains supply, simply because our well water was 'non-potable' (due to cows defecating all around it and the sewage seeping in. Nice.)

Also, many people will have grown up in this situation and are more comfortable with bottled water, or prefer the taste (our mains is excellent in France, but I wouldn't drink the chlorinated stuff we get in England without filtering).

[Teamedup]

The water we have around here is gorgeous. The maternity clinics say that it can be used for babies bottles without boiling it.......not that I dared do it. And yet many many people I know buy bottled water all the time. I will never understand it, but that is just what they do.

I have had foul eau potable in other parts of France though when holidaying, highly chlorinated, quite disgusting.

[opas]

Our water is also lovely,but when I go to my dad ...near the pennines,suposed to be a good sourse....I can`t drink it ,tastes well, yuk.

[Val_2]

Here we can drink the tap water BUT no one does because of the very high nitrates that have been found in the past. When you see all the intensive farming that goes on here with fertilizer year after year and this then permeates through the granite into the rivers and underground streams which is where our local water comes from. There is so much controversey about this problem because the beaches are always green with algae which thrives on these nitrates that even government ministers have now taken up the case in trying to ban farmers from using the stuff. When you can buy 6 x 1.5l bottles for 0,30€ in Intermarché it dosn't really make a lot of difference and you know its a bit safer. To me water is water and when you are thirsty it goes down very quick so buying expensive names like Evian,Volvic are a waste of time and money in our house and one 5litre dispenser only lasts three days max in our house along with the other bottles in the fridge.  I do like those flavoured gassy waters too, but not the still ones.

[Jonzjob]

 "I do like those flavoured gassy waters too, but not the still ones."

Hi Val,

I can only agree with that. I also take the precaution of making sure that it's been boiled as well, just to get rid of the inpurities. I've just opened another one, it's got a Kronenbourg lable on it, flavoured with barley and hops   !! Well in the hot weather you have got to keep the fluid levels up haven't you?

 Happy John.

[LesLauriers]

We drink eau de source, only we don't pay for it. Every few days I go down to the lavoir in the village and fill up my empty water bottles, just like many of the locals.

[Dick Smith]

[quote]The water we have around here is gorgeous. The maternity clinics say that it can be used for babies bottles without boiling it.......not that I dared do it. And yet many many people I know buy bottled...[/quote]

I should hope so too, the number of people that seem to be bottling it and flogging it! There's so much mountain water in Sainsbury's it gives me vertigo.

[Val_2]

LOL. Remember Peckham Spring water!!

[Dick Smith]

I'd forgotten that - but it seems quite appropriate (especially after the Coca-Cola water fiasco)

[Mpprh]

Hmmm

Me, a cynic ?

Nestle is currently rationalising its production of mineral waters.

If you read the small print on the labels, they own quite a few (including Contrex and Vittel in the Vosges, Quézac in Lozère and Perrier at Vergèze).

They have a proposal to dispose of the original spring and bottling plant at Vergèze, but keep the brand name Perrier.

So where will the new Perrier come from ?

Peter

[Teamedup]

Where will the new Perrier come from?

 

Hopefully not where coffins can get into the source!

 

Is this a myth/urban legend from the floods years ago, or was it true......... I never was keen on Perrier to start with, but that little rumour put me off completely.

[Jackie]

We drank the tap water when we first arrived but found that after a few months of this we were getting frequent minor upsets. We now drink Vittel cold and Jolival, which has less calcium, for tea. No more upsets. A village only a few kilometres from here often has an alert on the water supply due to farmers wastes getting into it.........................John in 79

[Dick Smith]

Mind you, we heard the story of a company that used to bottle eau de source nearby who had to give up when the water table became contaminated by dairy farming.

[Miki]

Has there been anything quite as tasty as 'Peckham Spring water, from a natural and ancient source'  

Certainly better than the tap water round this part of Brittany !! 

[Will]

[quote]Has there been anything quite as tasty as 'Peckham Spring water, from a natural and ancient source' Certainly better than the tap water round this part of Brittany !![/quote]

Glad to see you're not knocking it Miki - the farm shop where the 'Peckham Spring Water' was filmed being on sale was a mere stone's throw, literally, from where I was born in England and I'm still here having drunk the tap water for years. Our French tap water is OK, but where my sister lives in England the water is contaminated by all sorts of floating objects.