Carafe d'eau

Having worked in the food industry for most of my life, (farm market and then waitressing)it is very difficult for me NOT to critique the service when I sit down at any restaurant. I notice thing that I'm sure other people don't: the silverware has little food blotches on it still from not running it twice though the machine, the wine glass has a trace of a lipstick smudge, etc.

Here in France I find that generally the restaurants here run a tight ship. A few small differences I have noticed:
1. After you get your food, they really don't visit your table again.
2. You can stay there as long as you like. You really have to flag the server down to get the check.

The third one became obvious for me last night when we had a very friendly waiter at a quaint resto off rue de Seine. He noticed we were foreign and proceeded to ask us where we are all from (the good thing is now, the French don't automatically tag us as American. We once got that we were Swiss.) After telling him, he was very enthusiastic because he has been to New York 5 times. Other note: the French can't really grasp the concept of having both New York City and also a New York State. Anyway, he said the biggest thing that shocked him when he went to a New York (City) restaurant that there are people there who are so eager to fill your water glass. He said he counted how many times this kid refilled his friend's (who was apparently Mexican) water glass and it was over four or five times during the meal. He said it was the most ridiculous thing. I stared thinking about this and he was right. How many times a night at the restaurant was I running to get that stupid pitcher of water?? too many times. The French have this amazing thing called a carafe d'eau. It's a water pitcher...that they put...ON THE TABLE. Wowwwww! Who ever heard of such a concept!