Pic related, same kind of face with a grin

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Well, when I was a kid, I often went to my grand-parents' house, with my mother. The house was in France right by a forest and a few abandoned fields, full of grass, right at the limit of the village (42.808542N, 1.256735E if you're curious, nothing special about the place.)
I was like, 7 or 8 years old, and I used to ride my little bicycle around the house, but I always felt weird when I was behind the house, on the forest side, without being able to explain it.
The weird thing is that one day, I was riding around the house, as usual, passing by my mother's parked car, and I saw a little man, INSIDE the car, watching me. What was weird is that I remember having seen him first, but not really paying attention to him, as is if it was normal. I still can remember his face nowadays, nearly 30 years later, he was probably about 50cm high (about 20 inches) and had a mustache, and a weird grin. So, I didn't pay attention to it, and made another "lap" around the house... And I saw him again, looking at me. Except that this time, I totally panicked and ran inside, calling for my mom and grandma, telling them about what I had seen... After insisting a bit, they came down to check, of course... And of course, there was noone.
Considering I still remember him after all these years, I'm pretty sure I saw something. I know kids have a lot of imagination, but something so vivid is... Unsettling. So I have 2 questions :
1) What could it be ? Gnome ? Troll ? Elf ? Spirit ? I'm good with medieval fantasy lore, but it's "fantasy", it's too distorted compared to the real "myths" and I don't really know what it could be.
2) I had read about the fact that kids could actually see things adults cannot. Being more sensible to things, perceiving things adults can't perceive anymore, as our senses get more dulled with the years. Does anyone have a good read about that theory ? Only serious stuff, I'm not looking for nosleep RP.!