No, this is not a scene from one of the larger than life dreams that has me in cavernous rooms which defy all sense of space, filled with disconnected elements that are really metaphors into my weird and confused psyche. Actually, this scenario is tame, fun and fantasy like compared to places I visit at night. Usually, there is no translation available to me on dreammoods.com when I wake up and I am left wondering, ‘What the heck was that?’. The places I go require a bit more information I’m afraid. Maybe drugs.
Anyway, in honor of the letter D, we are headed to the rue du Bac in the 6th arrondisement and a visit to Deyrolle.
In February of 2008, this beautiful menagerie suffered a fire that thankfully did not destroy as much as originally thought and brought to light just how revered this most curious of establishments is amongst Parisians. The owner, Prince Louis-Albert de Broglie, who first visited Deyrolle when he was five and bought it in 2001, has painstakingly nursed it back to its original, if not better self. Founded in 1831, its contents remain, for the most part, in much the same state as one would imagine back then. Fossils, geodes, bugs and stuffed animals really don’t change all that much. His commitment to making this shop a Parisian ‘phoenix’ was successful and the doors are once again open to the public.