I could never have shared with you the story of monsieur Henri Launay and his love for dolls if I hadn’t come across the unusual window of his shop and the "personages" who populate it ?

Ancient dolls, naked baby dolls, little lonely heads, gazing blue eyes stare from the window at the passers-by on the avenue Parmentier. The inscription "Here we replace broken heads" resting on a little easel challanges your imagination and makes you wonder who and what do they want to introduce ? Go and see, says a small inner voice !

The cling, cling of the bell at the entrance door accompanies my first step into the boutique.

Welcome into another world !

Two huge oak counters and all the shelves around are filled, covered and stuffed with naked celluloïd baby dolls called "petit baigneurs" who of course are not afraid of water, dolls with porcelaine faces, plush old teddy bears, an indescribable pell-mell of spare parts (heads, legs, arms, eyes, wigs) travel bags and old umbrellas, most coming from another epoch.

• Bonjour Madame, are you a doll lover ? says a soft pleasant voice from behind the counter.
I follow the voice and come face to face with the smiling features of monsieur Henri.
• A doll lover ? Yes, I am, like most girls in this world but I know little about the ones I see.
He looked arond embracing and caressing with his eyes all the little "souls…dolls" and decided to introduce them to me, one by one.

"Le baby" with its loughing face and characteristic features, "le bébé gourmand" holding its bottle in the left hand, "le bébé songeur" lost in its thoughts, "le petit garçon avec la raie sur le coté" showing his two or four front teeth, François (the boy) and Françoise (the girl) with their translucent complexion, the beautiful Dominique with her big round eyes and the little heart-shaped mouth, proud of her "Art Déco" silhouette. Monique - an adolescent, Josette, Jacky a baby doll a few mouth old, looking a bit sad and classified by the specialists as a "bébé caractere", Claudinet a little boy with curly hair, Claudine, his little sister easy to recognize because of her gracious smile. Now is the turn of Martine and Calino to make "la révérance".

Nano, Nani, Nanoum and Nanouma represent the humanity with their black, asian or white features. Voilà Jeanne d’Arc so called because of her hair cut, Colette, Marie-France and the famous, successful Parisienne with her dimpled chin.
They all came into this world between 1870 and 1979 created by a group of Geppettos working for Petitcollin, la Societé Industrielle de Celluloïd, la Societé Nobel Française, Ets G. Convert, Anel or manufacturers like Raynal, Gégé, Bella, Jumeau.

As a little boy, Henri was very much like the other little boys of his age. In those times toys were a rarity. Together with his three brothers (no sisters), he used to invent and make his own toys as well as the games. "Times were not easy but we were happy children" he says

When he came to Paris he opened a repair shop for Moroccan leather goods, suitcases, school satchels and umbrallas. The dolls entered his boutique and his life later, the day that Mme Fortunée (Fortune) brought along with her umbrellas, the first doll. Monsieur Henry can’t remember what kind of doll that was or what it was "suffering" from but he repared it. The news spread in the district and throughout the city of Paris. From then on the customers (mostly the mothers of little boys and girls) brought, along with their bags and umbrellas, their children’s little "suffering" companions. Poor, little dolls ! One had lost an eye, another an arm or a foot, the wigs were all in pieces and the porcelaine faces smashed. They had lost their fingers between the sharp teeth of the little tots. Have you ever thought of how difficult the life of a doll is ?

Monsieur Henry is a self made man, nobody tought him how to give a second life to all these "creatures"
He learned "the dolls" from books and museums alone His passion, patience and meticulous attention did the rest. But when today you see a mother bringing into his boutique her daughter’s doll (the daughter being 45 years old) you feel as if Monsieur Henri is eternal.

Before I live I ask him one last question.
• Of all these beauties which crossed your life which one has captured your heart ?
Without hesitation and looking straight into my eyes he says
• YOU are the one !