France in Focus

For several months now Veolia have been giving us grief to have the water meter changed at the house in Autun. The company itself is quick to pass you onto contractors rather than get involved, although they seem to know when we have contacted the subbies.

Our problem is that we are not always there and it is far too difficult for them to work with dates when we can be there. Eventually, Veoila stepped up and sent a man and van convenient to us. Said man arrived at 08.00 this am. He was in the house for two minutes and left saying he couldn't turn the water off! I went down to check (him long gone, almost doing a wheelie up the road) and true, the robinet does not shut it off completely; I assume that the washer is perishing, but it only allows a dribble to pass.

I was a tad pi$$ed off, after all, they are WATER people and surley they are capable of replacing a tiny meter with a bucket under the open pipe to catch drips, given there is no pressure. So, to my point, is there a system in France for turning off the water to a house from outside, as in the UK with stopcocks in the road?

Loup-garou wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2026 12:25 pm For several months now Veolia have been giving us grief to have the water meter changed at the house in Autun. The company itself is quick to pass you onto contractors rather than get involved, although they seem to know when we have contacted the subbies.

Our problem is that we are not always there and it is far too difficult for them to work with dates when we can be there. Eventually, Veoila stepped up and sent a man and van convenient to us. Said man arrived at 08.00 this am. He was in the house for two minutes and left saying he couldn't turn the water off! I went down to check (him long gone, almost doing a wheelie up the road) and true, the robinet does not shut it off completely; I assume that the washer is perishing, but it only allows a dribble to pass.

I was a tad pi$$ed off, after all, they are WATER people and surley they are capable of replacing a tiny meter with a bucket under the open pipe to catch drips, given there is no pressure. So, to my point, is there a system in France for turning off the water to a house from outside, as in the UK with stopcock in the road?

There certainly will be a 'water company' stopcock, probably tarmacked over or buried in weeds etc.
It's the water co's property & responsibility & invaluable if there's a leak downstream, which is the house holders responsibility.
That should have been the second port of call for 'meter man' if stopcock by meter didn't hold.
I'd be surprised if meter man didn't know this so probably couldn't be arsed to look for one.
You really should know where this stopcock is & if you don't should request the water co. to find it.
It'll be handy for others to shut it off if you're absent, there's a leak & water's pouring out from under the front door.
How do you turn off water in the winter if you're not there?

These small leaks can be a bugger if you are only here for the summer. A pal of mine, as usual shuts off the water mains ands electricity when he leaves for the winter. A small water bypass on the valve filled the sanipump to overflow and without electricity to pump it out was left with a nice smelly brown stain on the floor.

I've had a look and we have a three stone slab communications pit next to the house, a big round metal plate that says"GAZ" and a smaller, but not too small, plate that has no markings - that must be it. Further up the road there are small metal discs with EAU on them so I assume mine was changed at some time.

Off back to the Plateau de Langres tomorrow (only here for the water change) so I'll need to have a look under the strange plate next time.

Thanks for the contributions.

We live in a small commune that has about 8-9 hamlets both sides of a valley, we are lucky enough to have our own water sources.

About 15 years ago two irish couples who had a maison secondaire tried on multiple occasions to get the mairie to replace the gate valve in the path outside, becouse it was seized up, and the stopcock inside wouldn't turn off properly, so it was impossible to turn the water off, the we had a very cold week one february where everything froze, we we actually on holiday in Lanzarote that week, but it was still below freezing, as the keyholder I went to inspect the house, and every flexible hose had split, and so had the bath and shower tap, not only that, the ice had smashed through the front of the water meter, luckily as it was still frozen, i could disconnect the meter and install a blank. But as the mairie had no money (the commune has less than 300 people) we ended up diging up the path outside installing a new meter box, meter and stop tap, and the mairie replaced the main gate valve and made good the path.


Then about 10 years ago the big boys tried to mussle in and take over all our sources, but our mairie stood their ground and told them to bugger off, but the consequence was that they had to update the system, install equipment to treat the water etc which has put the price up, but a small price to pay to still have control our own water.