A Paris cycling adventure

Église de la Madeleine

You’ve been winding your way closer to the centre of Paris for about ten minutes, dodging motorbikes and pedestrians, resisting the temptation of stopping at a Boulangerie for yet another croissant, inhaling exhaust, and generally having a good time.

The Église de la Madeleine is now in your sights, and it dominates the stream of vehicles circling around it. You’ve got to be careful riding around in central Paris — you never know when a gorgeous monument or building is going to pop out of nowhere and leave you awestruck.

But for now, you push the Madeleine’s intricate freize to the back of your mind and concentrate on the cars and trucks and buses around you. The road has opened up somewhat and traffic is fanning out from two lanes to four or five (more or less, since there aren’t any lines painted on the road).

Everyone’s rolling up to the red light like cross-country runners at the start of a race, jostling for position. You know there’s a bike box at the front of that line, and you could get a head start and leave this craziness behind if only you could make your way up there.

One of those electric carshare vehicles pulls to the left in front of you, and a narrow path opens up between two somewhat-straight lines of cars.

Try to squeeze through to the bike box or Hang back and wait for the light to turn green

Sam Nabi