 His contract expired in 1726, though he lingered to the beginning of the Russian New Year the following March.On his return to Paris, Pineau found the Régence manner had been transformed in the decade of his absence by the carver-designer François-Antoine Vassé and the designer Gilles-Marie Oppenord (see Rococo).Surprised to find the field of architecture currently well filled by highly competent Paris-trained practitioners, Jacques-François Blondel reported, he depended upon his own specialty of designs for carving, and enjoyed a "vogue extraordinaire."