Francois Daneck is a well-established interior designer, but of the two stores he owns in Paris, the Colonial house is by far the most curious, and most impressive.

On Rue Paul Bert, site of one of Paris’s oldest flea markets, enter the mansion by a discreet metal gate at No. 8. You’ll enter a small corridor that often displays collections of fossils or insect shadowboxes and which leads to the courtyard and the store.

Its usually at this point that you realize Daneck is a master of “Mise en scene.” Specializing in exotic furniture and wildlife (sometimes oversized) taxidermy, Daneck creates original environments were the animal kingdom flows its noblesse into mankind’s everyday life. Polar bears in the piano room, alligators, and typewriters; from this assorted display results in the feeling that contemplating nature’s complexity from the intimacy of your own home can become a unique meditative experience.