Hard water areas in France

[mint]

I am fairly sure that I have seen a map on the Forum with these areas.  Pachapapa, I bet you can post one here?

 

[BJSLIV]

One or two for starters.

http://www.abiolo.com/calcaire-carte-durete-eau%20.htm

http://www.leaupure.fr/product/Carte-detaillee-du-calcaire-en-france

http://www.jpw-confort.com/eau/

 

 

[Quillan]

Well I am a bit disapointed with these maps because only one of them possibly can be correct if you are are living outside of central or north west France. If you look at the levels down south they are quite different from map to map.

[andyh4]

Q

That is because for a number of areas it is not sufficiently accurate to look at the results on a departemental basis.

 

So if you take my Departement - 07 Ardèche - which shows one of the wide variations in results:

 

In the North we have soft water.

In the South there is a large limestone region (gorge de l'Ardèche) so the water is hard to very hard depending on where it is sourced.

 

In the middle we have another limestone block, the Coiron which is overlaid by volcanic rock.  Take your water from a high steam and it will be soft, take it from a resurgence (natural spring) in the limestone it will be hard.  Take it from a river and it will be a mix of the two - in a pretty unspecified way as well, since recent rainfall will run off the volcanic overlay quickly (soft water) but that which seeps down and into the limestone will create a pulse several days later (hard water).

[mint]

Thanks for your answers, everybody, and special thanks to BJSLIV for providing the maps.

Andy, your answer is most interesting.  It is as I suspect, with wide variations in areas that might be contiguous geographically.  So, might be geographically close but geologically miles apart?[:D]

I was just curious to see the "official" info.  The water in my old house is really hard, more than that, it's actually very harsh on clothes, hair, skin and it tastes horrid.  My new place, which is only an hour away, has much better water.  Although still hard, it doesn't fur up the kettle to anything like the same extent and I have noticed a massive difference in calcaire deposits round taps, in the loos, etc.

It's one of those things that affects practically everything in your life and you just need to get used to it as you can't easily get away from it.

[pachapapa]

It is possible that the supply of potable water to a small commune may be supplied by a small local supplier rather than a large operation like Veolia. This is the case in my own commune where the water is sourced from a small karstic deposit and supplies a very limited area.

  Glad to see that in a typical commune of the area adequate control is exercised by the authorities, including the la préfète, over activities of pisiculture; a good sign.

Le secrétaire général de la préfecture de la Dordogne, le maire de la commune de##########, le chef du
service de police de l’eau de la Dordogne et le service départemental de l’office national de l’eau et des milieux
aquatiques sont chargés, chacun en ce qui le concerne, de l’exécution du présent arrêté dont une copie sera
transmise à ########### pétitionnaire et à la fédération de la Dordogne pour la pêche et la protection
du milieu aquatique.
Fait à Périgueux, le 15 décembre 2009
la Préfète,
signé: Béatrice ABOLLIVIER

Names of commune and pisiculteur removed for reasons of confidentiality.

[Judith]

When we got our dishwasher, I went to ask the mairie about the hardness of the water (for salt etc) and they gave me a list of the testing done pretty recently,  - but I could find nothing about hardness, only purity etc.   Obviously not a concern here, only that the water is safe to drink.

However, having lived in soft and hard water areas now, I am beginning to know (roughly)  how hard the water is - but I admit sweets, that doesn't help if you really need to know.....