Water filter system needed?

[Redlory]

Hello,
I'm planning to walk the Via Podiensis in autumn 2025 to Cahors.
My question: is potable water regularly available or would you recommend taking a water filtration system?
Thanks heaps

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

@Redlory, welcome to the forum.

I have yet to walk this route, ( planned for next year) but everything that I have read (here, YouTube, Reddit etc) says that potable water is readily available.
In France it is very common to find a potable water source in the cemetery.

That said, I will be carrying a filter because I already own it, it only weighs 80gm, and I intend to camp along the way. (The filter means I don't have to carry as much water)

If I was simply walking from Gite to Gite I would not bother.

 

[Lexicos]

Hello,
I'm planning to walk the Via Podiensis in autumn 2025 to Cahors.
My question: is potable water regularly available or would you recommend taking a water filtration system?
Thanks heaps

Yes, in my experience it is, and I’ve walked it twice. I’ve not had to buy water or to filter it. Readily available along this route.

 

[Pafayac]

France is well-developed country.

 

[Paul-CH]

When I have been hiking in 2017 there where enough places to get water for me.
The fountains are marked if you should/can't drink the water. At the cemeteries there is usually a tap with drinking water. When you go into a Restaurant for a coffee, they will refill your bottles when you ask for it.
You may check the distances between the towns with Camino de Le Puy

 

[lt56ny]

You are walking in France, not Somalia.

 

[Chrisp]

Hello,
I'm planning to walk the Via Podiensis in autumn 2025 to Cahors.
My question: is potable water regularly available or would you recommend taking a water filtration system?
Thanks heaps

I walked the Via Podiensis this year and you definitely do not need a water filtration system. Of course it is up to you but we had no trouble finding potable water and I usually consume a lot of water during the day

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

France is well-developed country.

You are walking in France, not Somalia.

The OPs question is very reasonable, there's no need to be rude or dismissive. Australia, NZ, Canada and the USA are also 'well developed' countries, and yet many of the walks through all of those lands require water filters.

Edited to add: the GR5 is a well known European Trail through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Walkers are advised to carry a water filter.
There are many other examples.

 

[RobinK*]

@Peterexpatkiwi , when will you be walking this route? And will you update us via the forum then? I always camp during caminos also. So I'm very interested in your adventure next year.

 

[lt56ny]

The OPs question is very reasonable, there's no need to be rude or dismissive. Australia, NZ, Canada and the USA are also 'well developed' countries, and yet many of the walks through all of those lands require water filters.

Edited to add: the GR5 is a well known European Trail through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Walkers are advised to carry a water filter.
There are many other examples.

There have been a zillion posts that have stated what i wrote just in another way. Sorry if I have not fit into your definition of correctness and fit your definition of rudeness. And may I add Flint, Michigan to your exhaustive list of bad water. The bottom line for me is who cares and why get so twisted over something as insignificant as what I write. One person's humor is another's offense. Obviously. Buen dia.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

@Peterexpatkiwi , when will you be walking this route? And will you update us via the forum then? I always camp during caminos also. So I'm very interested in your adventure next year.

I hope to hit this section of my walk in June. Exactly when all depend on many other factors, most of which are completely out of my control.

Thread 'From my doorstep in Germany - a (very!) long term project' https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...ep-in-germany-a-very-long-term-project.83155/

If all goes well I will start out again at the beginning of April, worst case 4 weeks later. I'm planning on taking it pretty easily so just averaging 25 kilometers a day, including rest days. With 1400km to go before I reach Le Puy it should take me 8 weeks.

But all of this is based on how well my ankle holds up ( I broke it enroute earlier this year). And that is unknowable until I actually hit the trail....

Yes, I will be posting - I'll probably just add to my thread above.

 

[Paul-CH]

the GR5 is a well known European Trail through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Walkers are advised to carry a water filter.

You are right in this case. But when you go on a camino without a tent or similar you don't need a filter. There are villages enough on the track. Even on a Via de la Plata there is no need for 35km unless you like to drink water from one of these Arroyo.

When you go a GR5 with a tent you need it because otherwise you have to carry to much water. As you need it for drinking and maybe for cooking you dinner.

 

[Glenshiro]

I can't speak for the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, but I don't know any country in Europe that doesn't have ample supplies of drinking water. The only time I use a water filter is hiking in remote areas of the Scottish Highlands where I get my drinking water from a river. I think some Europeans are understandably touchy at the suggestion that our standards of water quality are somehow below par. After all, the Romans were providing clean drinking water to their principal towns throughout Europe over 2000 years ago!

 

[BlackRocker57]

almost every hamlet and village on the entire route of the Via Podiensis including the variantes has at least one source of potable water ...

 

[backpack45]

Hello,
I'm planning to walk the Via Podiensis in autumn 2025 to Cahors.
My question: is potable water regularly available or would you recommend taking a water filtration system?
Thanks heaps

Yes, it is available all along the way. We carry our day's supply in a water bladder (backpack-style) or a reusable bottle of some kind.

 

[SYates]

Hello,
I'm planning to walk the Via Podiensis in autumn 2025 to Cahors.
My question: is potable water regularly available or would you recommend taking a water filtration system?
Thanks heaps

I have walked the Via Podiensis from Le Puy to Santiago and safe drinking water is available everywhere, so spare the weight ;-)
BC SY

 

[mocamino]

I carried a filter two years ago on this route because one of my companions is extremely sensitive. However, it was unnecessary and I quietly left it behind after two weeks. Lovely route - we did the Cele variant and I highly recommend.