The helpful man I almost yelled at

Today, on my way to a useless pedagogical meeting (of which there are many), I got lost in a Parisian suburb called Bobigny.  Standing on a busy street corner, I stared in all directions, wondering where to go.  Suddenly a tow truck honked at me.  I looked up, and the driver was gesticulating to me to cross the street.  He made a face like "What are you doing, I'm waiting for you to cross."  Confused, angered, and still lost, I shrugged at him, crossed the street, and thought about making an obscene gesture.  Honestly, it wasn't my good nature that prevented me from doing it, it's that in France the American single finger salute is not acknowledged as having meaning, and I don't know what they use instead.  Defeated (and still lost) I glared at him from across the street.  He glared back.  I raised my hands and shrugged my shoulders in a "what?!" gesture, which he returned to me.  I then gave up on him and opened the book where I had scribbled directions.

"Perdu?" - "Lost?" The man yelled at me across the street from his truck window.
"Oui!" I yelled back, making a sad face.  Suddenly, the portly middle aged man opened his cab door, ran across three lanes of traffic and asked where I was trying to go.  After I explained to him, he pointed me in the right direction, told me to be careful crossing the rest of the streets, and bid me "bye bye" in (possibly) his best English.

I walked down the street a ways, around a rotary, and saw the man pass me with a car in tow and a passenger.  He slowed down, opened his pasenger's window and yelled across her to tell me that I was on the right road.
"Merci beaucoup!" I smiled and gave the thumbs up sign.  Well, he must be the friendliest person in France! I decided.  When I had just about reached the last street that I needed to turn onto, the man was returning, having dropped off his passenger and her car.  Stopping in the middle of traffic, he yelled to me "Take a left here!" and pointed down the street.
"Thank you!!" I yelled and waved, laughing to myself, and feeling thankful that someone was indeed friendly around here.

The moral of the story is you never know who is going to be friendly, so don't flip anyone off.