http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/7270401.stm

"Mark Boyle, 28, who set out four weeks ago with only T-shirts, a bandage and sandals, hoped to rely on the kindness of strangers for food and lodging... But in one of his last entries, he wrote: "...not only did no one not speak the language, they had also seen us as just a bunch of freeloading backpackers"

Who'd have thought French people would a) all speak French and b) see a bedraggled hitchhiking Englishman asking them for food and bedding for free as a chancer?