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I'm not a big fan of spending 3EUR for a 250ml bottle of water, hence the question: are there any drinking water fountains/taps in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, be it airside or at departures/arrivals level? Ideally I would like to either drink directly from the tap/fountain or refill an empty water bottle.

Using the taps in the washrooms at CDG might not be an option, since these dispense tempered (warmish) water suitable for hand/face washing. Moreover they are sensor-activated and provide a relatively slow water flow which could make refilling a bottle a tedious process. Below is a picture of a washroom at CDG, courtesy of Karen Bryan on Flickr:

enter image description here
Toilets at Paris CDG Airport, Karen Bryan, Fair use

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    Plenty. They're called "taps".
    – O. R. Mapper
    May 17 '15 at 15:35
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    Do you want to fill up an empty bottle? or want to see an actual drinking fountain? I like the comment by @O.R.Mapper because taps at CDG are cleared for drinking anyway.
    – Gayot Fow
    May 17 '15 at 17:17
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    @gayotfow Both. The point is getting access to drinking water without having to pay through your nose. If you have references to back up the potability of the water from toilet taps at cdg by all means add an answer.
    – JoErNanO ♦
    May 17 '15 at 19:38
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    @O.R.Mapper: See for example nytimes.com/2008/01/29/health/29real.html (and we can take it to Skeptics.SE if necessary). Perhaps "unhealthy" is a better term than "unsafe." Not sure about Europe, but public buildings in the US increasingly have bathroom taps that have no handles, only an optical sensor, and when triggered it dispenses warm water; there is no way to get just cold water. (The sensor also makes it hard to drink or fill bottles, and the flow rate is often low enough that it would take a long time to get very much water.)
    – Nate Eldredge
    May 17 '15 at 20:02
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    Note that lead piping has been banned in construction in France since 1995, so at least the newer terminals shouldn't have an issue with that.
    – drat
    May 25 '15 at 1:25
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+50

Yes, but not everywhere.

Below is an image of what the water fountains look like at the airport at the time of writing (07/2015):

CDG water fountain
CDG water fountain, JoErNanO, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

Apparently, the fountains are used in other airports - but I found another mention of it in this video, which also attributes it to CDG. It is a side view, but it matches up.

I also found this blog post, which says

The fountain (I’ll try to post pictures) was a tall, orange thing with two buttons on each side, like a pinball machine, and instead of a spout, a metal disc with no clear hole. I saw some savvy French woman get a sip, but when I tried I had no luck. I pushed the left button. A blue light turned on, but no water. I pushed the right button. No change. I put my phone down and pushed both buttons. A different blue light went on. I was totally confused, and still thirsty.

Where Are the Fountains

Recent, hands-on experience with the airport show that drinking water can be found in the following locations:

Terminal 2

  • Terminal 2D: there is a fountain in the Schengen zone (after security) next to the toilets between gate D54 and D55
  • Terminal 2D: there is a fountain in the check-in area (before security) next to the male toilets between desks 9 and 8
  • Terminal 2E: there is a fountain between gates L25 and L26 (as of 19 Jan 2019), between M25 and M26 (near Toilets) and between M46 and M47.
  • Terminal 2F: there is a fountain after security in front of gates F29/F30 out of order as of 22/07/16. Working again as of April 2017.
  • Terminal 2F, arrivals floor: inside the entrance to the toilets, near Marks & Spenser Food. There is confirmed water fountain next to La Maison Du Chocolat across F24 (June 2019)
  • Terminal 2G: near the toilets

(Please edit if you have information about other areas)

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  • Can confirm 2E between L25 and L26 as of 2019. I found no other taps around the L gates.
    – Brandon
    Sep 30 '19 at 11:43
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enter image description here

I found another water fountain at terminal 3 (for budget airlines) between gates 7 and 8.

(Edit)

I found another water fountain today, also at terminal 3, Hall A, but between gate 3 & 4. I think this is a different part of the terminal to the one at gate 7 above, which I think is only accessible via Hall B, so it’s worth mentioning here.

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And an additional update, as of January 2018, there is this water drinking fountain in CDG Terminal 2E, located near gate K34:

enter image description here

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Found this one near gate T2A-A47. Climb up the stairs and on the way to the restrooms you will find one past the closed smoking cubes

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