It's common in France to ask for a free jug of water with your meal. Of course the restaurant owners would prefer to sell a high margin bottle of wine, but they won't cry over the internet for the few customers who don't spend enough on beverages.

Fascinating history, but the overload of gifs makes it look like it has been written for retards.

Egg, mushroom and bacon, it's a kind of bite-sized english breakfast, I guess.

About point 6 : the real name of the system was "Minitel", not mintier. You can read more about it here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel . It had been exported to several countries (including USA), but without the same success as in France.

An italian village has also installed the same thing a few years ago : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6189371.stm