Grande Roue de Paris

Théodore Vienne, the industrialist and founder of the Paris–Roubaix cycle race, was both owner and director of the Grande Roue de Paris.

It was disassembled between 1920 and 1922[3] and rag-and-bone merchants used the pods as huts to carry on their trade.

This evolved, through second-hand shops, into the antique trade that is now to be found on the site and known as the Swiss Village.

The passenger cars were removed from the wheel and used as homes for French families when the region was devastated by World War I.

[4] Almost 90 years passed between its construction and a taller wheel, the 107.5-metre (353 ft) Cosmo Clock 21, being built in Japan.