Fetch Magazine by Taigan

Three years ago, Deyrolle, the great cabinet of curiosities that is one of the most beloved shops in all of France, was the victim of a fire that destroyed 90 percent of its inventory. Now reopened, it is the subject of an oddly beautiful book and makes an appearance in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.”

The day after Deyrolle’s catastrophic fire, photographer Laurent Bochet rushed over to the Rue du Bac and began snapping pictures of the ruins: entomology drawers containing beetles and crabs and swallowtail butterflies; trays of fossilized gastropods and bivalves; chunks of quartz and branches of coral; and, most moving of all, the stuffed forms of zebras and storks, goats and gazelles. At first, like so many devoted—and devastated—Parisians, Bochet went to offer his condolences to the proprietor and staff of the beloved 170-year-old-plus institution. But then he became obsessed with the task of capturing the tragic and terrifying tableau, and the results, captured in Assouline’s 1000 C Deyrolle, are as strangely beautiful as they are moving. As Louis Albert de Broglie writes in his forward, “I consider each of his creations as a monument linking history, mystery, and science, much like the volcanic artifacts of Pompeii.”

One of the book’s sections features staff and friends of the shop, including the great decorator Jacques Grange and the book’s publisher Pierre Assouline, holding some of the pieces that were at least partly spared. Pierre Vaudier, Deyrolle’s window dresser who is pictured above, is quoted as saying that he means to “reconstruct, rebuild and make the dream live again! For all, just as it was when I first came here.” Happily, Deyrolle’s drawers are, indeed, again filled with specimens, and the lions lie down with the lambs at the top of the stairs, while a fox seemingly naps in a chair. Meanwhile the book remains a stunning testament to all that was lost. Says Pierre Assouline: “By a paradox that is part of its enigma, the flames that threatened to erase Deyrolle forever had the effect of preserving its memory.”

Shop Books & Books on Taigan for a copy of 1000 C Deyrolle.

Pictured above, Laurent Bochet’s images include Pierre Vaudier with a peacock, the skull of a lion, and a collection of Lepidoptera from Asia.

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