(Ville de St. Pierre, St. Pierre & Miquelon, France)

A lot of my photographs of St. Pierre feature colourful buildings. The diversity is striking, even when compared to Newfoundland (which has no shortage of colourful houses). Don’t be surprised if a future blog entry exploits this photographic inventory!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we returned to L’Atelier Gourmand for a second dinner. Alas, as it was Bastille Day, the full menu was not available. I suppose this was a good thing, as I tried something that I never eat at home: lobster.   The French description was La fricassée de homard aux légumes, roughly translated as lobster fried with vegetables.   I don’t know if it was the intention, but the sauce tasted a little like a Thai red curry.   Anyway, I enjoyed it and it capped off a rare day of dining on French seafood.

Visiting a cemetery is always an interesting, if somewhat morbid, way to learn more about a place.  The tombstones tell some interesting stories:  I sure wasn’t expecting to see the Toronto Maple Leafs logo on one of the graves!  Less whimsically, the diverse origins of the St. Pierrais became quite clear.  We saw many Basque names, as well as Spanish, Portuguese and even a few English names.  There were also “adopted” surnames, such as “L’Espagnol”.  Finally, the enduring connection to France was made very clear by the moving war memorial.  Many St. Pierrais have served in the French army.

Notwithstanding the Maple Leafs logo on the tombstone, they are not the most popular team here:  we counted at least 3 Montreal Canadiens bumper stickers while wandering through town.  Canada does indeed have a bit of an influence here!  More prominent, however, were Basque stickers and flags.  I even picked up a Pelota t-shirt that featured a stylized Basque flag, as it was such a common sight here.   To “cap” it off, I also bought a beret.  I didn’t see anybody wearing one but they are made of wool and it was relatively hot during our visit.   Maybe I can wear it on the ice once the curling season starts!

Our last morning was dedicated to some of the more commercial aspects of the islands.  I enjoyed a freshly-baked pain au chocolat at one of the many patisseries, picked up a bottle of cider from Cournouaille (located in northwest France, opposite from the similarly-named Cornwall in England) in the local supermarket, ate a tremendous quiche at Les Délices de Joséphine, and picked up a couple of souvenirs.

We had been dreading the return boat trip, due to the bumpy ride we experienced on the way to St. Pierre & Miquelon.  Fortunately, the seas were very calm; we arrived in less than an hour and the most difficult part of the trip was lining up with the hundreds of other passengers at the Canadian border control in Fortune.

My final thoughts on St. Pierre & Miquelon:  if you find yourself within a couple of hours of Fortune and have a couple of days to spare, it is definitely a worthwhile and eye-opening trip (especially on Bastille Day, even though the stores are all closed).  It really is the closest thing to Europe that I have encountered thus far in North America.

I think you would need to spend at least two nights here to fully appreciate it.  We stayed for two nights and didn’t have a chance to visit Miquelon or any of the other islands, nor did we do much in the way of hiking or museum visits.   Just make sure you book your accommodations in advance, make dinner reservations if you want a sit-down meal, and accept that things (including business hours and the electrical voltage) won’t be exactly the same as in the rest of North America.  That’s why we travel, right?