It seems the latest unlikely design star in Paris is 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose face has been showing up on rugs and chairs around town.

The well-known portrait of Rimbaud at age 17 is the inspiration for this Jean-Charles de Castelbajac-designed Rimbaud rug for Toulemonde Bochart. Walking down a Paris street at an ungodly hour recently, there was Rimbaud's youthful mug again, haunting the back of a chair, and keeping company with other esteemed literary figures.

And the Arthur Rimbaud rug from Chateaushop, seems to be an example of his prolific correspondence, blown up into a rug.

Is this the height of pretension or a French attempt to inject some poetry into the soul of modern design?

- Kristin Hohenadel blogging from rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, France. She can be reached at kristinh @ apartmenttherapy . com