Yesterday I was almost involved in an incident on a main (but quiet) road in SW France. I was with my 6ft 6in son in the Beast when we were flagged down by a guy in the road, with two cars parked nearby - an old Chrysler Voyager and an old Xantia, both on what I realised later were Romanian plates.
The guy who stopped us said he was Dutch (but very suntanned...) and shouted at me in French, Italian and something I didn't recognise that he needed a mobile phone because the baby in his car was ill. He was waving a piece of paper with a number on it so I handed him my (fortunately not expensive) mobile. I looked in the car and the child looked fine to me. Then he demanded money for petrol to take the child to hospital - and men from the other car approached. At that point I realised what I was involved in, grabbed my phone back and beat it. Lucky my son is as big as he is - they didn't try to follow.
I rang the Gendarmerie and told them what had happened but best not to play the Good Samaritan I think. I've since discovered that this sort of incident has become common in my part of the world, sad to say.
If you are driving in France and someone tries to flag you down, unless they are in uniform (NOT just wearing reflective jackets) or you can see an obvious accident - my advice is to drive on.
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