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View Full Version : Hard water? Try Parisian water.



ZaiV2
Feb 23, 2007, 05:17 PM
Some people are fortunate enough to have what's called soft water, which is water without much dissolved in it, to drink and shower with. Others have hard water, which has minerals and such and can cause skin problems for some people. I have hard water. However, during my stay in Paris, France (left last Friday, got back yesterday) I had to shower using their water. This, I discovered, was very, very bad.

I was affected in two ways. The first way was with my hair. I'm very proud of it, having grown it out past my shoulders (and planning to grow it longer) and keeping it shiny, healthy, and soft (my last two girlfriends have claimed that it's of better quality than that of a lot of women). Well, after just one shower in Paris it looked disgusting. Dry, frizzy, limp, and in general substandard. I wasn't using the shampoo and conditioner the hotel provided, either. I brought my own stuff. After my hair dried from my shower this morning using the same stuff, it showed great improvement. Unfortunately, it'll probably take around a week for it to recover.

The second way was my skin. I've been fighting off acne problems since puberty, using many over-the-counter and prescribed treatments over the years but all with the same kind of minimal effect. Recently I've been using two that actually work; for the first time in a long time, I had no acne but what was already well on its way to healing. In Paris, that all changed. The morning of my flight home, as I brushed my teeth, I counted seven new zits across my face and neck. "Who counts the zits on their face?" you might ask. Well, it would be pretty hard not to, considering their severity. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

The water's probably not that bad for all of Paris, but it just might be, considering that they treat their water differently. It definitely wasn't the hotel's plumbing, since I was staying at a rather nice hotel. Still, its effects were very frustrating.

astuarlen
Feb 23, 2007, 06:28 PM
But you got to go to Paris. So much art, architecture, and history and stuff. And croissants.

ZaiV2
Feb 23, 2007, 06:40 PM
Oh, I'm not saying I didn't like Paris. Paris was great (and the croissants were actually less to my liking than what I can get at a supermarket; there were far better pastries to consume) and I took a lot of pictures, and to be sure I'll never be able to experience a few things like the top of the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame, or the cathedral with the amazing stained-glass windows (can't remember the name...). What I am saying is that the water sucks.

Blitzkommando
Feb 25, 2007, 12:54 AM
Be glad that the water wasn't like many of the towns I've visted where they have untreated well water. Nothing quite like getting a nice mouth full of sulfur at a water fountain on a hot day. Delicious!

Though, my worst water fountain experience happened in Washington DC, in one of the Smithsonian museums actually. It turns out I had picked the exact moment that they decided to clean the pipes for the building while I was eating in the cafeteria. I had run out of milk and wanted some water. What I got was a blast of white, chalky, disgusting pseudo-water as it did that while I was drinking. So, I know exactly where you are coming from.

Firocket1690
Feb 25, 2007, 04:31 AM
Oh? it gets worse, too. you bet.

school takes an annual trip to some foreign country, as part of the curriculum. as of now, we're planned for costa rica. the spanish teacher avoided mexico for the sole purpose of bad water. she claims too many bad tales about mexico's water.

and .. and ...! paris! >_>;; I want to go. <_<

oh, and functional otc acne treatmetn? I lol in your general direction.

Solstis
Feb 25, 2007, 07:25 PM
Florida has some pretty bad water, but New Jersey water is... interesting. I think that you could sit under a faucet with a pan and look for gold/mineral deposits.

Firocket1690
Feb 26, 2007, 02:04 AM
On 2007-02-25 16:25, Solstis wrote:
Florida has some pretty bad water, but New Jersey water is... interesting. I think that you could sit under a faucet with a pan and look for gold/mineral deposits.


Wait, what?
>_>;;
Shush.

mother gets 5 gallons of poland spring delivered here monthly, so go me.

Ma_Navu
Feb 26, 2007, 03:19 PM
Hard water?
Isn't that ice? xP

Anyhow, I'm sure that Floridian water is bad-- Due to the fact that I live in Florida, I know of it's water. Before showering, I leave my accessories on top of the toilet-cap-thing (that big flat part above the handle). Every time I come out of the shower, my accessories are a deeper shade of bronze (Fake! Yaaaay!) and I end up with a big rash on my chest, not because of the ring and glasses, but because of the water.

But still, that can't be as bad as that New Jersey water. "You could sit under a faucet with a pan and look for gold/mineral deposits"? That made me lawl.

navci
Feb 26, 2007, 05:06 PM
I guess the upside is that you don't live there. :>
Sucks to be Parisian, I suppose. But hey, if you have nothing to compare it to, you'd not know the difference.

clynn
Feb 27, 2007, 12:45 PM
water?what is water? Sounds funnz: w-a-t-e-r.....
...
...
...
... You guys mean Vodka right?

DavidNel
Mar 9, 2007, 05:43 PM
Go to New York. I don't mean New York city, I mean out in the boonies. My fiend lives up there, and the entire house reeks of sulfer. The people up there just get used to it. No one drinks tap up there, and the grocery stores are 10 miles away.... Yeah, it sucks.

You could come to GA, water's good down here! Actually, it really depends on the pluming... Most places are good, but if you live in Marietta, water mains break on a weekly schedual >.>

opaopajr
Mar 10, 2007, 12:50 AM
Paris is about Perrier showers and champagne enemas. you should tolerate simply nothing less.

Kent
Mar 10, 2007, 02:42 AM
Paris? Meh.

Crepes, croissants, various other pastries, and go back to my room. Not all that interested in frenchieville, save for the food.

...And the only real way to fight off acne, is in my genes somewhere. Come and get it.

Otis_Kat
Mar 11, 2007, 09:13 AM
On 2007-03-09 14:43, DavidNel wrote:
Go to New York. I don't mean New York city, I mean out in the boonies. My fiend lives up there, and the entire house reeks of sulfer. The people up there just get used to it. No one drinks tap up there, and the grocery stores are 10 miles away.... Yeah, it sucks.Here in the western part of the state the water isn't bad. I've been all across the country and haven't seen much better water.

Maybe it has something to do with the massive sources of fresh water 10 minutes away(Great Lakes) seeping into/from the ground water and being filtered or something. Although I wouldn't trust Lake Erie, it's caught on fire twice before >_>

Tengoku
Mar 11, 2007, 05:57 PM
Sounds like you had an excellent trip, if all you can complain about is how the water ruined your pretty, pretty hair.

*boggle*