Let's say you are telling a story using past narration. Is it common to use the historical present in order to make an event more vivid?
An example might be,
Malheureusement, le vol était complet. J'ai demandé tous les gens à la porte pour leur billet. Finalement, un fil me donne son billet gratuitement.
In this example, the last sentence uses the present tense, even though it is narrating an event in the past. Is this a common technique in French?