While Tapwater.org is leading the way in London and the rest of the UK towards a bottle-free existence, Paris is making efforts too in this most worthy of causes. France is apparently the eighth biggest consumer of bottled mineral water in the world, and particularly of sparkling, and so habits have died hard. Eau de Paris, Paris’s Thames Water, have attacked on two fronts: firstly by installing a stylish sparkling water fountain in the 12th arondissement, (nicknamed Champagne Sarkozy); secondly, by attaching taps on the side of the sanisette toilettes. While the first is totally in keeping with the Paris style, the idea of drinking from a water source so close to a urinal may take longer to catch on. In three days of walking round Paris last week, I never saw even one person take a sip.
Maybe they need to take a leaf out of Tapwater.org’s book and think about installing apps on iPhones and Blackberries, to find the locations, while on the move. That would be a start.
www.tapwater.org
www.eaudevie.fr
