Metropolis Magazine has a thoughtful and quizzical feature on one French designers aim to deviate from stereotypical French design by going heavy on the opulence. Meet Jean-Marie Massaud.

If you’re a French designer today, chances are you loathe the expression art de vivre. If a critic were to use it to describe your work, you’d be insulted—stigmatized as someone whose creativity is hindered by tradition. And yet try as I might, I cannot avoid the dreaded term when it comes to Jean-Marie Massaud, recipient of the Cré­ateur de l’Année of the 2007 Paris Salon du Meuble. Massaud’s main concern is to propose a new art de vivre, which he calls scenario de vie (“lifestyle script”) to distance himself from this burdened phrase.