Franche-Comté. In a book, he tells the story of the intertwined destiny of the Gustin family of Fougerolles and brandy.

It's painstaking work. The fruit of three years of research. A fine distillation of notarial and parish registers, documents from departmental archives, to extract this spiritual eau-de-vie that has so permeated this Franche-Comté region, a true kingdom of the cherry tree. Philippe Gustin is an offshoot of this genealogical tree, just like the Roblins and the Fleurands, who wrote a long chapter in the history of Fougerolles.

This meticulous search for "any trace relating to fruit trees, production and marketing" of this spirit and the related activities generated, serves as a common thread for this detailed retrospection which details how the "Fougerollais understood that they possessed a resource that they could sell locally or more distantly." How this source of life energized and structured a society almost entirely based on self-sufficiency. "It also shows," explains the graduate of the ENA who has accomplished remarkable work as a demographic historian, "that the Fougerollais, aware of this windfall, immediately had this reflex of demographic transition." Even going so far as consanguineous unions "so as not to squander the family fortune, a fundamental element. A very nuclear family which shelters two or even three generations under the same roof and which only conceives of social evolution within this one."

Philippe Gustin engages in a "genuine investigation into the intimacy of the people of this era." Scanning ways of being and acting, of community life, by reviewing all stages of existence, from birth to death, via marriage. He focuses on his own family, the Gustins, pioneering ploughmen, one of the oldest in Fougerolles, put through the social sieve to decipher what punctuated their daily lives. Understanding the nomenclature of this kinship through the combination of statistical data.

This book , Les Gustin, a Comtoise family from Fougerolles, the capital of kirsch , written with the support of the Société d'agriculture, lettres, sciences et arts de Haute-Saône, paints a picture of this local landscape filled with small, flowing stories, anecdotes, historical references, demographic information... Without ever losing sight of the fact that in the middle of this setting that belongs to the past, flowed this nourishing eau-de-vie. This kirsch from Fougerolles, labeled AOP in 2010. Philippe Gustin weaves a link between this glorious era and our days. With the accent of authenticity. The opportunity to "measure the way in which the French people," prefaces Annie Genevard, "are anchored in very lively peasant roots. It is that we receive, like an intimate heritage, the centuries of work on the land that our ancestors carried out."

"The Gustins, a Comtois family from Fougerolles, the capital of kirsch," by Philippe Gustin, Le Livre d'histoire-Lorisse publisher. €25. Philippe Gustin is organizing a book signing this Saturday, June 7, at 2:30 p.m., at 1 rue des Ursulines in Vesoul, as part of the monthly conferences offered by Salsa.