Paris Walks 4 - Deyrolle - A Cabinet of Curiosities

Deyrolle - 46 Rue de Bac

I had first heard of Deyrolle in Adam Gopnik’s book Paris to the Moon and made a mental note to one day visit this cool menagerie of stuffed animals. Gopnik tells us how he takes his toddler Luke on a daily trip to this bizarre and beautiful taxidermists so Luke can fulfill his wish to see the animals.

In 2003, like Gopnik, I introduced Deyrolle to son and my husband. They had no idea what was in store for them and neither did I.

When we went in the main doors of Deyrolle we were visually greeted by a pair of standing gazelles wearing gardening aprons. Adjusting the incongruous outfits was a chap telling us about his “gardening line” and how we should plan on visiting it. “Blah!” I thought, nonplussed at first, thinking something cutesy was going on. I later found out this fellow was Prince Louis-Albert de Broglie, a member of a distinguished French family. After giving up a banking career he started a national tomato conservatory. His friends mocked him, calling him the Prince Jardinier, or gardener prince. He also created the Prince Jardinier label of garden implements and a line of attractive, long-lasting gardening clothes that were presently displayed on the gazelles. Broglie visited Deyrolle when he was 5 and bought the place in 2001.

Anyway, up the stairs we went and found ourselves in gaping at the scene in front of us. Housed in a series of high-ceilinged, high-windowed rooms were stuffed animals: lions, leopards, geese, monkeys and a miniature donkey; a giant water buffalo and a polar bear. Birds were posed in full-flight or perched on branches under glass. Dogs apparently slept in the aisles. My son (9 at the time) was a little put-off. After all it was a little macabre.

But I found that Deyrolle was more like an 18th-century cabinet de curiosités than just a taxidermists. Botanical and zoological charts were for sale but other charts adorning the walls looked like they had been there since 1881 (since the store moved to its present location. Some of the charts can be seen (I think) in Mathilde’s bedroom in Jean Pierre Jeunet’s, A Very Long Engagement.

A worker in the furthest room had received an order of shiny beetles from the tropics and was gently unwrapping them. Drawer after drawer that I carefully pulled open were full of a multitude of butterflies, scarabs, and gently folded birds.

For generations people have been visiting Deyrolle and have a special place in their hearts for it. I admit I was in a bit of panic when I first heard the second floor had been severely damaged in a fire almost exactly a year ago. I’m on their mailing list and was puzzled and dismayed to see them asking me to contribute to Deyrolle’s rebuilding by buying a commemorate Hermes scarf. I hear Deyrolle has been restored but with 90% of its inventory gone – I can't see how. It’s one of those things in the world that can never be replicated and we’ll never see its like again. If anyone is brave enough to return, please let me know how it is. In the meantime I recommend everyone Google this fantastic place to see how intriguing and wonderful it once was.