Also in France. Blinking rear red lights were also forbidden in the beginning, simply because anything blinking was forbidden unless you were police, firemen, paramedic... (or the light belonged to the yellow warning family). Later, in 2016, blinking rear red lights were allowed, while blinking front lights remained forbidden since they are a real pain.

As far as I am concerned, I bought a rear light that can at the same time: 1. shine continuously backwards 2. and blink towards the ground. So the light that goes straight into the drivers' eyes, being constant, is not aggressive, yet there is a blinking element which acts as a reminder that I am a bicycle, since during the last 15 years or so, a blinking red light (legal or not) has become a symbol of bicycle rear lights. (Its name is Seemee 300 by Magicshine, if anyone wonders)