Skinner

Someone who prepares animal skins for further use or sale.

“Away over there, the Gobelins Factory, Collège Estienne, the metro shunting yards. A little closer to hand, the furniture warehouse. And here, the streets lined with low buildings, with their reassuring names: Rue des Cordelières, Rue des Marmousets, Passage Moret. The stones are light-coloured, the couryards deep and spacious from which outside staircases of mahogany wood give access to the first floors. Many artisans seem to have inherited—and continue to practise—skills of bygone days: skinners, bookbinders, illuminators, lithographers. The pace is slower here than elsewhere. The faces of the people express a quiet and industrious patience.”

Jacques Yonnet, Paris Noir: The Secret History of a City (1954).

[Translated by Christine Donougher]