I don't have anything to post today so I dug up this photo of the Quai de la Mégisserie, which is just west of Châtelet on the right bank. There are a lot of animalerie stores there selling dog and cat toys, birds, cages, aquariums and so on. (My favorite was an aquarium that was built inside an old television set so it looked as if you were watching TV.) These alligators were out front.
Just now I looked up the name mégisserie to find out what it meant-- it's not a word you hear a lot. It is a specialty kind of tanner, one who blanches and prepares skins. So this quai has specialized in animals and their hides since the Middle Ages. One of the things I love about Paris is that the past is still present, if you know where to look!
