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.

 

[Marus99]

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.

Humor is in short supply here sometimes.

 

[naplesdon]

Humor is in short supply here sometimes.

As well as common sense. If you are drinking water from a mud puddle during a severe drought then maybe a filter is necessary, if you are concerned about the water quality a drop of chlorine into a 0.5L bottle will kill most contaminates. The new ministry of health is going to take fluoride out of you water and all your teeth will be falling out....

 

[domigee]

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.

Absolument! This is France you know, take care, take your own water and water filters!

 

[unadara]

On the Camino Primitivo this year I ran out of water and asked in a bar in Tineo for a refill. I was told to fill it at the Fuente down the road, I came down with a Bowel infection that existed until I came home over 2 weeks later, (strong antibiotics).
The Rains had been extraordinarily heavy and obviously the water usually clean had been affected. I would never have considered using a filter but might do in future.

 

[truenorthpilgrm]

Efren Gonzales is a popular camino YouTuber and he carries a water bottle with a filtration system, one that's built into the cap I think. He grew up in Cuba and had several bouts of parasites/infections as a kid, so for him it's an added security measure/sense of peace, not an indication that France has "bad water".

Also why can't some people just answer the damn question without a snarky lesson in geography? OP asked "what would you recommend?"...totally reasonable ask.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

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!

Really? What about the problems that areas of Spain, Portugal and France have all independently reported over the last couple of years of drought? And Greece has faced drinking water issues for decades. But that's really beside the point.

The question isn't whether or not European countries (in this case, France) have ample supplies of quality drinking water.

The question is whether or not that is readily available, enroute, to Pilgrims.

I live in Germany and I can assure you categorically that supplies of potable water are not always readily available to Pilgrims along the hundreds of kilometres of Jakobsweg/ Camino that I have walked.

Sure, the water quality in the towns and villages is excellent, but many of those villages have zero publicly accessible water supplies. No tap, no fountain, no Village Store, no bar, no cafe - nothing. Unlike France many of the cemeteries source their water from an onsite bore - not the town water supply.

Which means that you either carry all of your water for the day, hope to come across a friendly villager, or perhaps an 80gm filter.

 

[Walton]

France is well-developed country.

That is true France is a developed country but when we walked the GR65 from Le Puy to SJPdP in September / October 2023, we ran out of water on two occasions even though most would class us as being very experienced walkers.

We thought we were carrying plenty (Over a litre each) and that there would be lots of water resupply points along the way. Wrong.

We learned three things.

1. Our guidebook was not the French Miam Miam Dodo. It was another Guidebook written in English. Our French language skills are very poor.

There were additional water taps listed in MMDD that weren't in our guide. One was behind a bus stop and we didn't know. There was no sign.

2. Cemeteries usually have drinkable water.

3. Houses often have garden taps but there might be guard dogs or no-one home. We were thwarted by a guard dog on one occasion and didn't wait around. Half a kilometre later there was another house with a garden tap and a sleeping dog on the front doorstep. We stealthily stole a litre of water on that occasion.

Whether it was drinkable or not, we didn't care.

If a hot day is ahead, check the MMDD guide if you can and take extra water before you begin.

Cheers

Graham

 

[Redlory]

That is true France is a developed country but when we walked the GR65 from Le Puy to SJPdP in September / October 2023, we ran out of water on two occasions even though most would class us as being very experienced walkers.

We thought we were carrying plenty (Over a litre each) and that there would be lots of water resupply points along the way. Wrong.

We learned three things.

1. Our guidebook was not the French Miam Miam Dodo. It was another Guidebook written in English. Our French language skills are very poor.

There were additional water taps listed in MMDD that weren't in our guide. One was behind a bus stop and we didn't know. There was no sign.

2. Cemeteries usually have drinkable water.

3. Houses often have garden taps but there might be guard dogs or no-one home. We were thwarted by a guard dog on one occasion and didn't wait around. Half a kilometre later there was another house with a garden tap and a sleeping dog on the front doorstep. We stealthily stole a litre of water on that occasion.

Whether it was drinkable or not, we didn't care.

If a hot day is ahead, check the MMDD guide if you can and take extra water before you begin.

Cheers

Graham

Valuable, thank you

 

[Paul-CH]

There were additional water taps listed in MMDD that weren't in our guide. One was behind a bus stop and we didn't know. There was no sign.

Hi Graham, there is always the possibility of asking one of the few people you meet along the way about public water points. If you are very thirsty, you can also ask someone sitting in their garden.
The French are friendly people

 

[naplesdon]

A filter is not going to remove bacteria, only chemicals will do that.

 

[Pafayac]

There were additional water taps listed in MMDD that weren't in our guide. One was behind a bus stop and we didn't know. There was no sign.

FreeTaps

freetaps.earth

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

A filter is not going to remove bacteria, only chemicals will do that.

Sorry, you're wrong. A good filter not only removes particulates, but also bacteria and protozoa like Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

On a side note, Giardia in particular is prevalent throughout Europe with thousands of cases reported every year.
Giardia is the most reported infection among the five food- and waterborne parasitic diseases under mandatory surveillance in 24 European countries.

What a back country filter such as the Katadyn Befree or the Sawyer squeeze does not remove is viruses.

 

[MikeJS]

I do not use a filter at home so see no need for such a thing when in Spain. However, I never use fountains or other unusual places to get my water as I drink my fill before I leave my accommodation each day and carry all that I need (plus some spare) for the day.

 

[Glenshiro]

We thought we were carrying plenty (Over a litre each)

A good case for the water reservoir. I carry one, 2.5 l when full and even on the hottest day have not run out - although a little judicious topping up is advisable when possible. Using water bottles, I once ran out of water on top of the South Downs in Sussex on a very hot day. You don't make that mistake twice!