It took a second before I'd put my finger on it, but suddenly there it was. Or rather wasn't. No sign of any hi-vis material. A distinct lack of helmets. Normal shoes to the point of, well, the point of high heels on some of the ladies. Jeans. Scarves. Quite frankly these people were not dressed for cycling at all!

The final straw came as we made our way down a main boulevard. A cyclist was heading downhill within a bus lane, which here was separated from the main carriageway by a raised hump. A car in the main carriageway was moving slightly faster, just past the cyclist, and signalled right to turn into a side street, across the bus lane and in front of the cyclist. I instinctively flinched, then noticed something very odd indeed.

The driver had stopped. He was still indicating right, he was pointing towards the side street, but he had stopped to let the cyclist pass before he moved on. This was not just a moment of paying attention to other road users, but actually a slice of deference to the right of way of the cyclist.

Had I really just seen that?

Now I'm not naive enough to suggest that Paris is some sort of cycling nirvana, and there are statistics available that show accidents/incidents can and do happen. But this sight wasn't a one-off, and it wasn't limited to those situations where cyclists clearly did have the right of way.