The Paris Traveler

….and now you do again! It’s like a magical ferris wheel doing a disappearing and reappearing act these past few years! The big wheel as many call it was built for the millennium celebrations in 1999 and was suppose to stay at the Place de la Concorde for only a year. That one year turned into two and was cause for much controversy when the owner Marcel Campion refused a judge’s order to have the wheel taken down.

When the wheel was finally dismantled, many celebrated and many were disappointed. No surprise, Parisians have done this with almost all its famous monuments. Parisians wanted the Eiffel Tower taken down after the World Fair was over in 1889. (Can anyone imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower today?!) Negative reaction to the Pompidou Center, and with Pei’s Pyramid in front of the Louvre when they were built, would also cause an uproar today if any of them were removed; and the list goes on and on.

Back to the disappearing big wheel; it became a sort of traveling show all its own and was re-erected in Birmingham, England in 2003. During the Christmas holidays in 2004 it made its debut in Manchester, in the summer of 2005 it did the same in Amsterdam, and the following year moved to Bangkok!

The 60 metres (197 ft.) Grande Roue is once again in the Jardin de Tuileries and what better place than for the Fête des Tuileries! It’s not only fun for kids and grown ups alike, it’s a great way to see Paris from a completely different perspective.

Photo Credits: Flickr

3 Comments