Deyrolle

The fantastic taxidermy shop that Adam Gopnik wrote about so memorably in the New Yorker is worth a visit, especially if you are trying to entertain children or husbands who are being dragged along on a shopping spree. On the bottom floor of the 19th-century Beaux Art building is Le Prince Jardinier. Climb the winding wooden stairs, though, and you will think that you have entered a natural history museum set in a palace. The grand salon rooms have ornate wood paneling and chandeliers fit for diplomatic entertaining but the creatures that inhabit them are stuffed elephants, polar bears and tigers. One room is devoted primarily to stuffed birds, from sparrows to a five-foot-tall ostrich. Another room contains many sea creatures and another insects. Small glass shadow boxes of butterflies and beetles are among the easiest exports, but they do ship larger specimens around the world regularly. The shop was destroyed by fire in 2007 but entirely restored; the restoration was so masterful you would never know  that it had ever been damaged.