Last week, I travelled to Paris and Amsterdam expecting the familiar European summer: long walks, cycling through breezy streets, and evenings that called for a light jacket. Instead, I found myself stepping into a heatwave that felt strangely familiar. As someone from Delhi, I wasn’t surprised by the temperature. What surprised me was watching cities built around walking and cycling confront a kind of heat they were never designed for.

And yet, despite the heat, what sustained itself was the active lifestyle. Whether along the Seine in Paris or beside Amsterdam’s canals, people continued to run, cycle and walk through temperatures above 35°C. But how long can cultures built around outdoor movement withstand a warming climate?

It started in Meudon, on the south-western edge of Paris, where the hills above the Seine are laced with cycling paths and the pace of life still feels unhurried. The dedicated cycling infrastructure, and the habit of running, jogging or walking, was so woven into daily life that even on a morning pushing past 30°C, at 7am, I watched joggers make their rounds, picking up bread and croissants by their fourth lap of the block. Even during last week’s heatwave, people kept moving.

In Amsterdam, the city didn’t just adjust to accommodate cyclists; it was organised around them. Bike lanes were wide and well maintained, not squeezed in as an afterthought between parked cars. Even in the heat, the streets stayed full of cyclists.

As heatwaves become longer, more frequent, and more severe, cities like Paris and Amsterdam will face a slow but fundamental pressure on the way people move through public life. When temperatures regularly hit 38°C or 40°C for days at a stretch, cycling to work stops being a lifestyle choice and becomes a health risk. Running culture, walking commutes, outdoor markets, spontaneous evening strolls, all of it gets pushed indoors or abandoned entirely.