Wallace Fountain

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This is a so-called Wallace fountain, a fountain that dispenses free drinking water. These fountains are scattered irregularly throughout the city.

The Wallace fountains were a gift from British philanthropist Sir Richard Wallace, who donated 50 of them to the City of Paris in 1872 (to which the city later has subsequently added another 36 fountains of identical design). He commissioned their design from French sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg; the four “goddesses” suspending the roof of the fountain represent Simplicity, Temperance, Charity, and Goodness. Normally a thin stream of drinking water flows down the center of the fountain, between the statues; this fountain was not running, however. The fountains are turned off during cold weather (from November to February).

Anyway, these fountains are handy for filling your drinking bottle on warm summer days. They originally had little cups on a chain attached to them, when they were first installed, but modern hygiene requirements are more stringent than those of the 19th century, and so the cups have been removed. Because of the awkwardness of getting water from these fountains if you have no cup or bottle, additional fountains of a new, modern design (looking like a melted candlestick, in my opinion) that work like American-style drinking fountains (no cups required) are being installed in the city.

Wallace fountains are not uncommon sights in the city. The fountain pictured above is near the top of the avenue des Champs-Élysées, in the rue Vernet.

If you are interested in seeing other examples of “urban furniture”, you can see a whole gallery by clicking here.

Photographed on July 12, 1999.