It’s safe to say Evian is the most popular brand of bottled water one the market today. It’s also well known that the water is said to come from various collection points of a spring around Évian-les-Bains (Evian for short).

However, the metaphysical question of the day is, do people in Evian drink Evian?  Rumor has it that all through the town, the water is readily available for free, and no one ever buys it. RocketNews went in to answer this and deeper questions.

Alright, so if Evian water is available to drink for free, are bottles of Evian sold there?
It’s absolutely true that spring water can be drawn in various locations throughout the city, so common sense would dictate that a shop would have to be crazy to sell bottles of Evian in Evian.  Even a tourist would know better than to pay money for Evian. Why else are they going to Evian?

However, as it turns out, Evian can be found on sale everywhere in the city.  Supermarkets, convenience stores, and even mom and pop shops are stocked with bottles of Evian water.

So… Why do they sell the stuff?
According to someone who works at a hotel in Evian, “Usually I just get it out of the spring but it seems like some people buy it. In my case, I don’t like tap water. So, sometimes I buy it if I’m too lazy or it’s too far to get it from the spring. My friends are like that too.”

A cashier at a local supermarket gives a different viewpont, “I buy it because it’s only 50 cents. There really aren’t that many people who get from the spring though. We also sell Volvic. [laughs]”

There you have it. Even in Evian, Evian vendors thrive. Well, they don’t really “thrive,” they just sell the stuff. The tongue twister was too good to pass up. This brings us to the final question.

So free water is flowing 24/7 all over Evian, but is it really Evian water?
It’s all coming off the same flow of water from “the heart of the alps”, but the places that town folk collect their water are not the same places the bottler uses.  Therefore it’s likely that the water is of at least a similar quality, but difficult to say if it’s exacltly the same.

Photos and Video: RocketNews24

Arriving in Évian-les-Bains, we see that even this quaint spa town has a graffiti problem.

First, straight to the vending machine to see if…

Yup, there it is.

Leaving the station in search of a supermarket.

Nice little town.

Found the supermarket, and what do we have here?

Even one of Evian’s top rivals is selling here.

Only €0.47 per bottle.  Note the price of Volvic in the photo above though.  I guess they understand it’s a hard market.

Water comes out of this nozzle all day every day.

Some people still seem to get all their water straight from the spring.

I wonder if it’s considered rude to collect Evian water in a Volvic bottle.