Must restaurants serve you free tap water in France?

Reader Question: Is it true that in France you can always ask for free tap water at a restaurant? I believe this is not the case in Italy.

Free tap water is one of several demands that customers can make in a restaurant that the establishment cannot refuse.

Patrons can ask for free tap water (une carafe d’eau) either as their only drink or an accompaniment to the table alongside other beverages.

Alongside this, all visitors can refuse charged cloakroom services, request a new meal if their current one is not fresh or hot enough, and ask for a ‘to-go’ bag free of charge. 

Other drink-related rules require any beverage ordered by the glass (usually wine) to be poured in the presence of the customer so they can see the bottle from which it comes, and for bottles (both glass and plastic) and cans that are ordered to be brought closed and opened table-side by staff.

Some restaurants will provide a carafe of water as standard when you sit down, and others will ask you after you finish ordering if you want one. Although not all restaurants offer tap water in this way, you can still make the request at any point of your meal. 

Be careful however to specifically order ‘une carafe d’eau’.

Some less scrupulous staff and restaurants may take advantage of any linguistic confusion (for example if you instead ask for just une bouteille d’eau or even just ‘eau’) to provide bottled water and add this charge to your bill. 

While ‘tap water‘ literally translates to ‘eau du robinet’ this use is usually limited to domestic water supply in homes. However servers should understand what you mean and confirm you want une carafe.

There are several inter-relating laws providing customers with the right to free tap water. 

If you are initially refused your request, staff can be pointed towards the French Finance Ministry website that clearly states the rule.

Report any further issues

If you have been refused free tap water by a restaurant, you can contact France’s Direction générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des fraudes (anti-fraud unit) to report the issue.

Reports can be made directly through the unit’s ‘Signal Conso’ service – a link to reporting issues at a café or restaurant is available here.

A recent case saw a restaurant at an Alpine resort fined €8,000 for failing to offer free tap water to customers and instead offering only bottled water.

Speaking to French media, owners of the Les Aiguilles de Péclet restaurant in the Val Thorens ski resort said the issue was ‘complicated’ as due to its high altitude, the restaurant’s main water source was from filtration water tanks and not a tap connected to the mains.

However, since the fine the restaurant now offers water from the tanks free of charge.