Today, a knowledge of how consumers perceive the water that comes out of their taps is essential to understanding the evolution of domestic uses of water and water availability. This paper examines changes in the drinking water perceptions of the inhabitants of Paris, France from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, taking into account the strong influence of prevailing political, economic, technological, health and social context over time. This original anthropo-historical study explores consumer perceptions of the quality of water and compares the manner in which those perceptions are constructed with the approach taken by scientists to analyzing the resource. What kind of water is “good”? Do consumers have a choice? Indeed, it is often on the basis of taste and smell, as well as visual and tactile memory that consumers determine individual criteria used to judge the quality of water. Three major periods highlight the evolution of perception about drinking water in Paris : observing water, monitoring water, mastering water.