Vive le carrousel!

Why is it that so many French cities have carousels in their centres? Lyon has one in the Place de la République, Paris has them aplenty, including in the Jardins de Plantes and Les Tuileries, while Aix-en-Provence has one at the foot of its Champs-Elysées – the Cours Mirabeau. Is it a necessary bureaucratic requirement? A tradition passed on from merry-go-round-loving parent to child? A way of sprucing up a town centre? Enchanted by the touch of magical whimsy it adds to a city, I thought I'd try to find out a bit more. Turns out the merry-go-round has a long history in France: while it was probably invented in Italy, when Louis XIV was in need of some entertainment for a lavish party, he ordered his engineers to build a carousel. It hid gilded chairs for women, and horses and swans for the men. Merci Louis, et vive le carrousel!