Page 410 - Christian Maas Full Book
P. 410
ties, bankruptcy followed, leading to departure from the Forez’s Plain to Saint-Etienne. The Hostel was
sold.
Christian enrolled in Saint-Etienne’s school. The entire family property was seized. Their pas-
tor helped out and proposed a humble lodging in the building where he himself lived in Saint-Etienne,
in return for doing the caretaking works of the time. Another friend of his father recommended the
mother to the director of the Peugeot factories, allowing her to obtain a function of metrologist, where
she would climb several hierarchical steps during her 20 years of service.
All throughout his life, he will keep the memories of the fullness of the days of his ligerian roots,
of a lost happiness. From now on, nothing would be like before, but the beloved ones taken from us never
truly die. It was indeed a heavy weight to carry for a ten-year-old child, but the trials of life make us grow
up; the same way each of the repeated attempts of the artist progressively lead him toward the truth he
seeks
The paradise had been lost, but he had experienced it. Then it exists, and he would devote him-
self to recreating it through art, his art.
Christian spent all his holidays in his grandparent’s farm in Haute-Loire.
His bonds to that Haute-Loire’s hamlet would shape his personality. That’s why we have to look
into this modest protestant village to find out what led him to become who he is.
It is well known that Protestantism established itself quite soon in that harsh region, and we could
say they are being in harmony with each other there. Sobriety, rigor, and authenticity.
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