I like the smiling Gendarme in the advert, my first sight of a Gendarme was in the port of Algiers, he was throwing rocks at the Arab boys who were running around the waterfront.
My second was on my first trip across the continent, the coach operator was on his first ever run down to the Costa Brava, on our return he fill up with fuel for the long trip home, when we crossed the border into France he was pulled over by two gendarmes on motor bikes and forced to pay a huge lump of duty on the fuel in his tank, pay or stay they told him.