Saint Pierre and Miquelon

• 1. Introduction

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  Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a small French archipelago off Canada, was the setting for the only use of the guillotine in North America. Joseph Néel was convicted of killing a Mr Coupard on Île aux Chiens on the 30th of December 1888. He was executed on the 24th of August 1889. The blade had to be shipped from the French territory of Martinique, and it did not arrive in working order. Finding anyone willing to carry out the sentence proved very difficult. In the end, a recent immigrant was coaxed into doing it. The case later inspired the 2000 film The Widow of Saint-Pierre, and the guillotine now sits in a museum in Saint-Pierre.

  The distances explain how strange this outpost is. Saint Pierre lies just 19 km from Point May on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland. Brest, the nearest city in metropolitan France, is 3819 km away. How did a rocky fishing station keep changing hands between empires? Why did a quarrel with Canada over the surrounding sea last so long? And what does daily life look like when home is a scrap of France beside the Grand Banks?

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• 2. What's in a Name

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  Saint-Pierre is French for Saint Peter, and Peter is the patron saint of fishermen. For islands that lived off the sea, the choice of name could hardly have been more fitting.

  Miquelon has a murkier story. In 1579, the French Basque sailor Martin de Hoyarçabal wrote a navigational pilot for Newfoundland. In it, he spelled the name Micquetô, Miqueton, or Micquellon. His sailing directions measure distances in leagues and mention the Pertuis de Micquellon, which shows that sailors already knew the place well.

  One claim holds that Miquelon is a Basque form of Michael. In the Basque Country, the names Mikel and Mikels are usually pronounced Mikelon. A French writer could have swapped the k for a qu, which gives Miquelon. The Basque Country straddles the border between Spain and France, and most Basques live on the Spanish side. So the Spanish name Miguelón, an augmentative meaning "big Michael", may also have influenced the spelling.

  The neighboring island of Langlade carries a different kind of name. It is said to be a shortened form of l'île à l'Anglais, or Englishman's Island. That is an apt label for a place the English attacked and occupied again and again.

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• 3. A Contested Outpost

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  On the 21st of October 1520, the Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes landed on the islands. That day was the feast day of Saint Ursula and her virgin companions, so he named the group the Eleven Thousand Virgins. Archaeology shows that Indigenous peoples of Canada, such as the Beothuk, visited the islands. No evidence suggests they ever settled there for good. In 1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier claimed the islands for France. The Mi'kmaq, along with Basque and Breton fishermen, already frequented them.

  Permanent settlement came late. Four permanent inhabitants were counted in 1670, and 22 in 1691. In that same year, 1670, Jean Talon was serving his second tenure as Intendant of New France. A French officer annexed the islands after finding 12 French fishermen camped there. During King William's War and Queen Anne's War, English forces attacked the French settlements several times. By the early 18th century, the colonists had abandoned the islands altogether.

  The 1713 Peace of Utrecht ended the War of the Spanish Succession. Under it, France ceded the islands to Britain. The British renamed Saint Pierre as Saint Peter, and small numbers of colonists from Britain and British America settled in. Then the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years' War, handed New France to Britain and Spain. Britain gave French fishermen rights along the Newfoundland coast, and it returned Saint Pierre and Miquelon to France.

  The back-and-forth continued. In 1778, France joined the American Revolutionary War, and British forces under Vice-admiral John Montagu occupied the islands. They burned every French settlement and deported the inhabitants to France. In 1793, Captain William Affleck led another British force onto the islands during the War of the First Coalition. The following year, the French colonists were deported and a British colony was founded on Saint Pierre.

  In 1796, a French Navy squadron under Counter-admiral Joseph de Richery appeared during the Newfoundland expedition. The young British colony was evacuated, and Richery's ships burned the abandoned settlement. The 1802 Treaty of Amiens returned the islands to France. Britain retook them in 1803, after the Napoleonic Wars began. The 1814 Treaty of Paris gave them back again, although the British briefly occupied them during the Hundred Days in 1815.

  When the French returned in 1816, every colonial settlement had been destroyed or lay in ruins. Settlers from Brittany, Normandy and the Basque Country gradually rebuilt, joined by many people from Newfoundland. Even so, the colony's economy did not recover for another 35 years.

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• 4. Smuggling and War

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  In 1903, the colony toyed with the idea of joining the United States, but nothing came of it. The early 1910s brought hardship, because the fisheries were unprofitable. Large numbers of islanders emigrated to Nova Scotia and Quebec. Steam fishing trawlers were also spreading, and they reduced the number of jobs.

  World War I made things worse. French authorities drafted every male inhabitant of conscription age after the war began in 1914. The fisheries suffered badly, because older men, women and children could not process the catch. About 400 men from the colony served in the French Armed Forces, and 100 of them died.

  Smuggling had long been part of island life, and it boomed when prohibition began in the United States in January 1920. In 1931, The New York Times reported that the archipelago had imported 1,815,271 U.S. gallons of whisky from Canada in 12 months. Most of it was smuggled into the United States. When prohibition ended in 1933, the islands fell into economic depression once more.

  A different crisis arrived in World War II. The colony's administrator, Gilbert de Bournat, had pledged allegiance to Vichy France. On the 24th of December 1941, the Free French Forces seized the islands from Vichy anyway. Canada, Britain and the United States all opposed the move. Referendums on both islands endorsed the takeover by over 98%. The colony's legal status would change repeatedly in the decades that followed.

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• 5. Governing From Afar

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  In 1946, the colony became a French overseas territory. After the 1958 French constitutional referendum, the islands were offered three options. They could integrate fully with France, become a self-governing state within the French Community, or keep the status of an overseas territory. They chose to remain a territory. On the 19th of July 1976, the archipelago became an overseas department. On the 11th of June 1985, it became a territorial collectivity, which meant withdrawing from the European Communities. Since March 2003, it has been an overseas collectivity with a special status.

  Residents are French citizens. They elect a deputy to the National Assembly, send a senator to Paris, and take part in presidential elections. The islands enjoy a degree of autonomy over taxes, customs and excise. There are two communes, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon-Langlade. A third, Isle-aux-Marins, existed until 1945, when Saint-Pierre absorbed it.

  France appoints a prefect to represent the national government. The prefect handles national interests, law enforcement, public order and administrative control. Since the 21st of August 2023, that prefect has been Bruno André. The local legislature is the Territorial Council, with 19 members. Four come from Miquelon-Langlade and 15 from Saint-Pierre.

  The islands are an overseas country and territory of the European Union, though not an integral part of it. They sit outside the Schengen area and the European customs territory. Even so, residents hold European Union citizenship. France handles defence, and the Navy keeps the ex-trawler Fulmar there for operations in local and regional waters. A branch of the Gendarmerie Nationale polices the islands from two stations.

  The Council's president leads a delegation called "France in the name of Saint Pierre and Miquelon" at international events. These include the annual meetings of NAFO and ICCAT. Such seats matter because the waters around the islands have long been a source of dispute.

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• 6. Rock, Fog and Water

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  The tallest point in the territory is Morne de la Grande Montagne, which rises 240 meters on Grande Miquelon. The archipelago has eight islands totalling 242 km2, and only two are inhabited. They are bare and rocky, with steep coasts and only a thin layer of peat. Like Newfoundland, they belong geologically to the northeastern end of the Appalachian Mountains.

  The largest landmass, Miquelon-Langlade, is really two islands. Miquelon, also called Grande Miquelon, covers 110 km2. Langlade, also called Petite Miquelon, covers 91 km2. A sandy tombolo called the Dune de Langlade, 10 km long, links them. A storm cut the isthmus in the 18th century, and the islands stayed apart for several decades until currents rebuilt it.

  The village of Miquelon-Langlade has 710 inhabitants. Langlade itself was almost deserted, with a single resident in the 1999 census. Saint Pierre island covers only 26 km2 yet is the most populous, and it is the commercial and administrative center. Isle-aux-Marins was known as Île-aux-Chiens until 1931, and it has been uninhabited since 1963. Grand Colombier, Île aux Vainqueurs and Île aux Pigeons complete the main islands.

  The water between Langlade and Saint-Pierre was called the Mouth of Hell, or Gueule d'Enfer, until about 1900. More than 600 shipwrecks have been recorded there since 1800.

  Seabirds are the most common wildlife. Seals live in the Grand Barachois Lagoon on Miquelon. Every spring, whales migrating to Greenland can be seen off the coasts. Trilobite fossils have turned up on Langlade. Stone pillars called L'anse aux Soldats eroded away in the 1970s. Apart from parts of Langlade, the hills lost their forest cover long ago, because people cut it for fuel. Only scrubby yews and junipers remain.

  The islands lie at a latitude similar to the Bay of Biscay, but the climate is far colder. The Labrador Current brings cold water, while the Gulf Stream brings warm water. The result is a borderline humid continental and subarctic climate, classed as Dfc. The yearly average is 5.3 C. August is the warmest month at 15.7 C and February the coldest at -3.6 C. Maritime lag makes September warmer than June.

  Rain and snow fall on 146 days a year, adding up to 1312 mm. Fog banks cross the islands about a hundred days a year, mostly in June and July. Winds are extremely variable, and haze settles in from spring to early summer. All this shaped the working year, since outdoor activity traditionally paused between December and April.

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• 7. Fishing, Oil and Francs

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  In August 1983, the naval ship Lieutenant de vaisseau Le Hénaff and the seismic ship Lucien Beaufort were sent to search for oil. They worked in waters that were disputed with Canada. France had claimed a 200 nmi exclusive economic zone for the islands. Besides possible oil, cod fishing rights on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland were at stake. By the late 1980s, falling fish stocks were raising serious fears about the fishery.

  In 1992, an arbitration panel settled the dispute. It awarded the islands an exclusive economic zone of 12,348 sq km, only 25% of what France had sought. The ruling fixed the maritime boundaries with Canada but did not mark out the continental shelf.

  The economy has always depended on fishing and on serving the fleets working off Newfoundland. Since 1992 it has been in steep decline. Overfishing depleted stocks, fishing areas were limited, and the Canadian government banned all cod fishing. Fewer ships stop at the islands, and quota disputes with Canada have not helped. France subsidizes the islands heavily, which supports the standard of living.

  Farming is hardly an option. The growing season lasts only a few weeks, and the soil is peaty, clayey and largely infertile. The unemployment rate was 12.8% in 1999, after deep-sea fishing ended completely. In 1990 it had been 9.5%. It fell from 7.7% to 7.1% between 2009 and 2010, and it was 2.9% in 2023. A third of employed people worked in the public sector in 1999. Exports equal just 5.1% of GDP, while imports equal 49.1%. About 70% of supplies come from Canada, or from elsewhere in France via Nova Scotia.

  The islands are trying to diversify. State aid has helped retrain businesses and individuals. The airport, built in 1999, kept the construction industry busy. Fish farming, crab fishing and agriculture are being developed, and explorations for oil and gas are under way. Tourism trades on the image of "France in North America". As of mid-2024, Saint-Pierre has six hotels and 13 restaurants and bistros.

  Money tells its own story of shifting loyalties. Before 1890, Mexican doubloons and Canadian dollars circulated. From 1889, local franc banknotes from the Banque des Îles Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon joined them until the end of World War One. In 1945, the islands adopted the CFA franc, usually associated with French colonies in Africa. In 1973, the regular new French franc replaced it. The euro became official on the 1st of January 1999, and euro coins and banknotes arrived on the 1st of January 2002. Many businesses also accept Canadian dollars, at a rate below the interbank exchange rate.

  The islands have issued their own stamps since 1885. The one gap ran from the 1st of April 1978 to the 3rd of February 1986, when ordinary French stamps were used.

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• 8. Island Life

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  The March 2022 census counted 5,819 people, with 5,223 in Saint-Pierre and 596 in Miquelon-Langlade. The islands lose many young adults, who leave to study and often never return. Remoteness, harsh climate and poor soil limited population growth even when cod fishing was at its most prosperous.

  The islanders speak French, and their customs resemble those of metropolitan France. Their French is closer to the metropolitan variety than to Canadian French, but it has some unique features. Basque, once spoken privately by people of Basque descent, had disappeared by the late 1950s. The population is overwhelmingly Christian, mostly Catholic. In 2018, the local Vicariate Apostolic was merged into the Diocese of La Rochelle and Saintes.

  Every summer, a Basque Festival offers harri-jasotzaileak, or stone heaving, along with aizkolaritza, or lumberjack skills, and Basque pelota. The cooking leans on seafood such as lobster, snow crab, mussels and, above all, cod. Street names are rarely used. People give directions with nicknames and the names of nearby residents.

  Ice hockey is very popular, and local teams often compete in leagues based in Newfoundland. In 2008, a Saint-Pierre and Miquelon side played an exhibition match against the French national team and lost 6-8. The territory has fielded no national side since. A domestic football league has three teams, and since 2018 local clubs have entered the Coupe de France.

  Getting around involves boats and small planes. Ferries link the islands to each other and to Fortune on Newfoundland, 45 km away. Crossings take 90 minutes. The flight between Saint-Pierre and Miquelon is one of the shortest scheduled airline routes in the world. Air Saint-Pierre began direct summer flights to and from Paris in 2018.

  The islands also host the Saint Pierre et Miquelon Galileo Sensor Station, run by the European Union and its space programme agency. It is the only Galileo installation in North America. Radio amateurs treat the islands as a separate country, identified by the prefix FP. Amateurs, mostly from the United States, visit every year to collect contacts for awards. Local internet service goes by the name Cheznoo, a play on the French "chez-nous", meaning our place.

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