Paris Rolls Out Its Third Free Sparkling Water Fountain

Not content to offer its citizens and guests mere free, clean, delicious tap water from the city’s 820 water fountains, Eau de Paris, the publicly funded organization that manages and promotes the city’s water, has introduced its third sparkling water fountain at the André Citroën park in the 15th arrondissement, offering complimentary chilled sparkling city water made bubbly on the spot.

Sparkling water fountains are popular in Italy and were first introduced in Paris in 2010 in an effort to reduce the plastic waste produced by the over-consumption of bottled water.

La Pétillante (The Sparkling) fountains are able to deliver chilled sparkling water thanks to a clever system that cools public water to a precise temperature using an ice block and adds carbon dioxide to the carefully cooled water to make it bubbly.

The sparkling water is distributed in roughly five ounce portions to avoid waste. But you can bring your own bottle to refill. And at the fountain at Park André Citroën new Philippe Starck-designed reusable water bottles are now on sale for €3.

The city’s two other sparkling fountains are located at the Jardin de Reuilly in the 12th arrondissement, and at the headquarters of Eau de Paris on 19 rue Neuve-Tolbiac in the 13th. And this year Eau de Paris plans to install an additional two new fountains, at Jardin d’Éole in the 18th arrondissement and Parc Martin Luther King, ZAC des Batignolles in the 17th, with another at the Square Tino Rossi in the 5th arrondissement coming in the spring of 2014.