The Galerie Deyrolle, a sort of curiosity shop/private mini natural history museum, was hit by a large fire this weekend that ravaged a whole floor of their building and destroyed much of their collection. Now they’re asking for people to help get them back on their feet…

photo : Marc Dantan


Deyrolle is an institution on Paris’ Left Bank. Founded by Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle in 1831, the shop moved to rue du Bac – into the townhouse of Louis XIV’s banker’s son – in 1888 and was run by Deyrolle’s grandson.

The shop wanted above all to educate people about nature, both animals and the environment, and started creating a series of large posters illustrating various subjects. These have now become famous, as the French government became their largest customer, and the posters were displayed in schools all over France. Their style is remembered by many, and the range of posters (like the example below) is still added to today.

The shop/museum became famous for its huge collection of butterflies and stuffed animals available for people to look at, and often rented out for commercial and films. In 2001, fallen on hard times, Deyrolle was bought up by ‘Prince’ Louis Albert de Broglie, a sort of French nobleman and lover of nature who has created his own brand of garden products called the Prince Jardinier and who writes about gardening. Thanks to his investment and restoration work, the curiosity shop was saved an embellished… until last weekend when a huge fire of unknown origin devastated 300m2 of the place and destroyed an estimated 2,000 exhibits including a zebra, an alligator, a bear… Over fifty fireman and 14 fire engines were needed to put out the fire.

Louis Albert de Broglie thinks it will take 500,000 euros ($740,000 / £375,000) to buy back all the animals, and twice that to restore the building, and he’s asking people to donate any animals they might have, especially preserved butterflies. If you have any knocking around the house, getting in the way, now you know what to do with them. Alternatively, you can go their online shop and buy some posters to help them out. There’s a huge selection of vintage ones, or newer examples like this one about endangered flowers. If you don’t have any spare stuffed animals of course…

Official site (in French): www.deyrolle.fr