There are three big funfairs (fêtes foraines) held in Paris each year. The season kicks off in late March with the Fête du Trône in the Bois de Vincennes (running until late May), followed by the funfair in the Tuileries gardens in mid-June to late August, with more than forty rides, including a giant ferris wheel, and ending up with the Fête à Neu Neu, held near the Bois de Boulogne from early September to the beginning of October. Look up "Fêtes Populaires" under "Agendas" in Pariscope for details if you're in town at these times. Very occasionally, rue de Rivoli around M° St-Paul hosts a mini-fairground.There's usually a merry-go-round at the Forum des Halles and beneath Tour St-Jacques at Châtelet, with carousels for smaller children on place de la République, at the Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées by avenue Matignon, at place de la Nation, and at the base of the Montmartre funicular in place St-Pierre. There is also a funfair museum, the privately owned Musée des Arts Forains, on the edge of the Parc de Bercy at 53 av des Terroirs de France, 12e. Located within one of the old Bercy wine warehouses, the museum has working merry-go-rounds as well as fascinating relics from nineteenth-century fairs. Visits are by arrangement only on 01.43.40.16.15; M° Bercy then bus #24.
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