I had got lost in Paris by car and wanted to get back on the motorway. As I don't speak French, I first tried to ask for directions out of the city in English, then in German and, as a last resort, in Spanish but the "l'agent de police" refused to communicate with me. Whether this was due to his monolingualism, he generally doesn't speak to foreigners or he was simply having a bad day, I don't know, but it was definitely a culture shock because he fulfilled every stereotype of a Frenchman.