So Patricia Wells talks about bringing your own croissant into a cafe. I have her book....I've got to read that! :-)

The experiences you listed are real eye openers.

I had an experience in Paris of a free table...but not on purpose. My Mother and I were walking around at about 4:00PM and just wanted to sit and relax for half an hour. Neither of us had any desire to eat or drink. However, we were on Blvd. St. Germain and there was no place to sit, so we decided to sit outdoors at Cafe Mondrian and each order a soda just to be polite. We sat down and looked around for the waiter to take our order, but didn't see him. We figured he'd be out in a minute. We started our conversation and before we knew it, a half hour had passed, our feet were rested and we were ready to move on, so we did! :-)

Candice NYC