In a stroke of pure genius, photographer Karen Knorr has combined two of the world’s best things—ornate French interiors and taxidermy wildlife—to create a photo series that is part fairytale, part nightmare, part chateau party. In other words, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Running between February 10 and May 30 at Paris’ Musée Carnavalet, “Fables—Photographies” features a series of 15 large-scale photos that involve various creatures (foxes, squirrels, beavers, flamingos) inhabiting the elegant salons of renowned French chateaux Chambord and Chantilly. Famed Parisian taxidermist Deyrolle loaned many of the animals featured in the works, and Knorr’s quirky compositions bring them to life in unexpected—yet strangely appropriate—settings. A squirrel and a fox contemplate a marble staircase, two stags lock horns in a grand foyer, a rabbit scampers beneath Louis XV chairs.

As it turns out, a world run by four-legged aristocrats makes perfect sense after all, and Knorr’s flight of fancy seems a fitting way to welcome spring to the City of Light.

Free entry. Musée Carnavalet. Open Tues-Sun 10am-6pm. 23, rue de Sévigné, 75003 Paris. Tel: 01 44 59 58 58.