Carousels of Paris

A charming collection of color photographs and historical information about many of the carousels in Paris.

Carousels are said to be a French invention brought about by the accidental death of King Henri II during a jousting tournament in 1559. Renaissance knights stopped jousting, and the games evolved into spearing rings with their lances. The idea of mounting wooden horses on a rotating frame dates to the 17th century. To entertain thousands of people during an event at Versailles, the Sun King, Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715, had his engineers design the first rotating merry-go-round, a four-seater with gilded chairs for ladies and horses or swans for the men. By the end of the 18th century, there were merry-go-rounds in several of the Parisian public gardens. In the wake of the French Revolution, the merry-go-round, like other sorts of entertainment previously enjoyed by aristocrats, became more easily accessible to workers and their families.

A charming collection of color photographs and historical information about many of the carousels in Paris.
Kaye Wilkinson Barley is the author of Whimsey: A Novel, is a past finalist in a Southern Writers Magazine Short Story contest, and has contributed to several anthologies, including the Anthony winning Blood on the Bayou. Her photography has been published in The North Carolina Literary Review. She and her husband, Don Barley, collaborated to produce was My Name is Harley and This Is My Story, a photobook published in 2014, a look at the life of a Corgi named Harley Doodle Barley, born on the 4th of July.

Carousels are an unexpected pleasure in Paris, a sight you come upon on a random stroll, see in a small park you hadn't visited before or find in a plaza strung with holiday lights. Some are permanent, some ephemeral, all magical. Merci to Kaye Barley for creating this book and giving us all the chance to be charmed by these Parisian delights daily.

--Dorie Greenspan, James Beard Award-Winning Author

Kaye and Donald Barley s photographs of Parisian carousels capture the whimsy, wit, and charm of the raucous merry-go-rounds that pepper the cobblestone streets and manicured parks of the City of Light. So grab a copy of Carousels of Paris and let your imagination wander back to a world full of colored lights and painted horses, quaint carriages and playful tigers, fantastical griffins and endangered dodos.

--Juliet Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Carousel of Provence and Letters from Paris

Simply enchanting! The carousels are delightful and the photographers manage to bring them to life. I half expected them to leap off the pages. I absolutely adored this book!

--Jenn McKinlay, New York Times bestselling author and author of Paris is Always a Good Idea