Maison & Objet 2011: Part One

Hello from Paris! Right after my flight landed, I made a beeline from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Nord Villepinte, where the famed design fair Maison & Objet is held twice a year. I had no idea the fair was so huge—nor that it tended, in such extremes, toward the chintzy, glamorous, and/or cutesy. But once I made my way through the gauntlet of candle displays and damask curtains and discovered Hall #8 (entitled "Now! Design á Vivre") I knew I was in the right place. Scores of booths from many of today's most exciting design talent proffered both their latest wares and their best-sellers, in a colorful jumble of creativity that made my head spin.