It never looks right in a still photo. If you could see the vectors, in motion, it would make sense.
As far as I remember, the primary rule is “never make eye contact”.
I have a half-French, half-English friend, the perfect model of the English public schoolboy, unfailingly polite and genteel, a real gentleman. The only time I ever saw him flustered was when we met up with him in Paris and he took us on a night-time tour which involved passing by the Arc - suddenly, there he was, leaning on the horn, gesticulating at fellow drivers and muttering under his breath in French!! It is clearly a cursed and evil place!!!
Grim
It’s genuinely one of the best things in Paris. The contrast between the solemnity of the Arc and the utter chaos below.