The fountains are playing and, in the distance, centre stage, is the Arc de Triomphe This is a close-up looking at the very end of the axis on which La Défense was built. And there’s a viewing platform at the top from which you can see for miles. His answer was La Défense which, with its soaring ultra-modern skyscrapers and vast public spaces is certainly impressive. General de Gaulle, we were told, was anxious to rebuild the bombed capital after the Second World War but, at the same time, he didn’t want to destroy the pre-war 18 th and 19 th century centre of Paris. Some years ago, I spent a short holiday in Paris exploring ‘little known Paris’, which included La Défense, Paris’s huge post-war business district, three kilometres west of the city’s limits. I like the way that one of the skyscrapers has a wall covered with mirror glass.
But my post this week takes place in Paris so I shall use ‘carousel’. The only word left which is not subject to misinterpretation is ‘merry-go-round’ – hence, my title. However, in English a carousel is the machine at the airport which delivers your checked luggage and goes round and round an oval track (the carousel) until you spot your suitcase and remove it. The French word for the merry-go-round is carousel. This Parisian roundabout gives its customers the choice of riding in a 19 th century submarine or on a traditional white horse, or in a 19 th century space rocket or sitting in a revolving teacup!īut when I googled roundabout, all I got was an unhelpful photo from somewhere up in the stratosphere showing me where the A15 crossed the A631. When I was a child we called them roundabouts: those colourful rotating machines with pairs of brightly-coloured horses you sat on which went round and round and up and down whilst you held on to the pole which went from the roof, through the horse’s withers, and was screwed into the floor. To begin at the beginning: the definition of ‘merry-go-round.
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