You wander into this beautiful old building to find it sells gardening equipment, plus quality books and prints of plants and animals. So far so normal. But go upstairs and you will find an entire menagerie of creatures. Stuffed and preserved. Zebras, lions, a polar bear, pheasants, peacocks, mouse-deer, even guinea pigs and hamsters. Flying overhead are an array of beautiful, colourful birds; glass cases house hundreds of butterflies and exotic insects (some mounted formally, some arranged like they're flying gracefully). Also, that old Victorian classic - the amalgamated animal: a rabbit with wings and other oddities.
And it's not a 'fusty dusty' old stuffed creatures thing.. this place is very clean, and the animals are pristine.
Actually I had wondered what Deyrolle was; perhaps it was somebody's collection, or another sort of museum? In fact, the creatures, like the books and illustrations (and gardening gloves) are all for sale. If I had wanted to (I didn't) I could have purchased a beetle for 4 Euros... or a civet cat for a few thousand.
It turns out that this shop was opened in 1881 by Emile Deyrolle, a naturalist and natural history dealer (from a family of naturalists, in fact). And it had a predecessor elsewhere in Paris which was opened in 1831.
Today I would guess Deyrolle caters for a niche, and I do wonder who their market is! For a casual observer, though, it's a strangely educational and rather beautiful experience. Worth a look :)
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(Btw photography is not allowed in there, so these pix are somebody else's!)
Deyrolle, 46 rue du Bac, Paris
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