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This small oil painting shows an interior view of the house of our friends Alain Germain and Dr. Vincent Vives in Saint Pierre Aigle (which literally means Saint Peter Eagle). The name alone of this place is magical. On the left side, the staircase of the tower from the 16th Century can be seen. This tower leans on the main building and is built from solid stone blocks (it is architecturally speaking not an integrated part of the main building but attached to it). This past autumn, for the very first time in 500 years, lightning struck the tower and ripped a big hole in the conic roof which is also built with carved stone. This former castle was called "Maison blanche" ("White House"), it belonged to Henri de Joyeuse and was part of the Royal Domain. After the terrible bombardments of World War I, the only part of the structure left standing was this wing, a trivial fact of minor importance in comparison with the human suffering from the slaughterings in the trenches which took place in this region. On the right side of the picture, we have a view into the main room. The fascinating aspect of this convoluted interior are the streams of light coming from varyingly different angles and from all cardinal points. Light is a symbol of hope to us, but only in the most minute cases can it repair the suffering we humans have willingly inflicted upon each other since the dawn of time.
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