Firmi Part Deux

So, I hinted at how La Gouzine has remained unchanged since...whenever it was founded. Certainly, there are modern buildings interspersed with the stables of the 1700's, and there are modern amenities like indoor plumbing, but the place just feels old. The fact is that Nick's two aunts and their husbands have lived there their whole lives, had children who now live within 50 meters from them, and can remember the exact homes their grandparents were born in. They keep their caves (larders) for the winter, to stretch pensions from the only businesses the town offers- a now-closed coal and zinc mine and an automobile filter factory. The larders are well stocked with home grown green beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes, zuchini, cucumbers, peaches, pears, plums, and apples.  Chicken and pigeon coops and rabbit hutches provided protein, aided by one pig purchased in autumnal preparation. Swine were slaughtered in the back yard and preserved through charcuterie or freezing. In the last few years, the aging couples have been unable to keep up with the care of the animals, so they have gotten rid of them.

Speaking of, introductions:

 Jacqueline, Nick's aunt.

Tony, Nick's uncle (and, as you will see, an inveterate prankster with a streak of mischief 1.6 kilometers long).

Everyone in their family worked in either the mine or the factory, or was a farmer, save for Nick's father, who left his home with an outhouse and a well down the road at age 16 to join the Army.This is where he left:

While the view is majestic, and (lacking a better word) soul of the residents is open and fraternal from living hard lives and needing to value relationships and the pleasurable things in life (like food, wine, and Ricard Pastis, an anise liqueur), there is not a whole lot going on down there. My guide claimed that I was probably the first American Firmi had seen since Liberation.

Given that, I'm assuming that when the Australians came, they were the first ever to step foot in Firmi.

Three of Nicks friends from Australia were doing a tour of Europe and came to Firmi for two days. They arrived just before dinner time, and rolled up a few hours late as Firmi and Gouzine somehow were missed on their GPS program. How about that?

Thus began a bacchanalian evening that began innocently enough with that indulgent mistress  soupe au fromage. A variation of the famous French onion soup, where a base of caramelized onions is suspended in a broth with a bit of cognac, with crusty bread and cheese, Cheese soup uses only the crusts of the local bread, unavailable anywhere else (Nick, a chef and restaurateur himself, confirms this), layer upon layer of shredded cheese curd, and just enough condensed onion stock to make a stringy porridge. This stuff is so heavy, it would put an insomniac in a coma.

The Aussies, left to right: Scott, Miranda, Shane.

I suppose that one side effect of a town with nothing happening is that the conversations are rich with local histories and customs. Nick mentioned that he had re-sprained his ankle a few days before heading down to Firmi, and all his relatives insisted that he go see the local healer. Yes, the French countryside apparently has healers: gifted natural talents who, without any sort of training, official or folk, are inexplicably able to feel the nerves, tendons, muscles, and pulses of any given area and realign them as a palliative for the associated pain. The locals swear by it, so Nick and I went to see the guy. After being welcomed in to a basement office in the healer's home, he asked what the problem was then proceeded to feel Nick's ankle. He found something and started digging and rubbing the ankle, methodically working higher on Nick's leg. It was obviously painful, but Nick said that it felt like there was a stone that was causing him pain, and the healer was just working the stone up where it diminished to a bearable degree. As Carl Sagan says "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Just because something isn't proven to work doesn't mean it doesn't, even when in all probability a placebo effect is occurring.

Next up: Fairytale Land and Town Loonies