Napoleon almost lost his life there. Placed on the repair desk, frozen in a lying position, this stuffed dachshund should have ended up in the trash after the death of its owner, but the heir preferred to bring the damaged animal to the only place in Paris where it had a chance to give it away: at Deyrolle, one of the oldest cabinets of curiosities in Europe. In the store at 46 rue du Bac, the first floor looks like a natural history museum.
Between two display cases of crustaceans and fossilized minerals, a lion watches over the assembly. The tiger is lying down, a cheetah seems to be advancing under the deer heads. A bear and her cub walk away from a camel, the crocodile no longer threatens anyone, a crested hen has the head of a comic book character, budgerigars are perched next to a Gouldian finch or a Blue-bellied roller. At the very bottom, lepidoptera number in the thousands, alongside beetles with iridescent reflections.
There are also spiders, dried fish, snakes coiled in jars, shells, burst lobsters, multi-colored rocks, meteorites and shards of Mars. Without forgetting turtle skeletons, skulls and jaws, meadows composed under globes, butterfly trees, art books, educational works and reissues of the famous educational boards which made the success of the company to the end of the 19th centurye century.
Finally, Deyrolle offers, barely hidden behind an enormous bull, a repair workshop for small pieces of taxidermy damaged by parasites or by the years. Most of the time, the animals are picked up by those who left them, like the cinnamon calf waiting, at the foot of the workbench, to be picked up. But others, like Napoleon, are brought there to stay, either because their owner no longer knows what to do with them, or because they are rare specimens, well preserved or simply interesting to observe. Handpicked, some will join the collections of the house, a true institution whose bicentenary will soon be celebrated.
Two centuries of existence! History also makes the place original. It was in 1831 that Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle, taxidermist at the Lille Museum of Natural Sciences, keen on entomology, set up a shop in Paris. His son, Achille Deyrolle, a great traveler, perpetuated the brand at 23, rue de la Monnaie, where he developed the trade in insects and animals that he brought back from distant continents.
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