The One Minute Geographer: Visit Real France an Hour from Canada
No, we’re not talking about Quebec and French Canada — great places. But we’re talking about real French territory and 6,000 citizens of France living on the picturesque islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon an hour by ferry off the coast of Newfoundland.
Canada’s indigenous people, the Beothuk, hunted on the islands but probably did not have any permanent settlements there. The Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes landed there in 1520. The explorer Jacques Cartier claimed the islands for France in 1536 and possession passed back and forth several time between France and England during colonial times. Even before Fagundes and Cartier, French and Basque fishermen sailed across the Atlantic to catch and dry cod.
St. Pierre is the main town on this island group of only 90 square miles. The economy of the islands is based on tourism and fishing. French is spoken and the Euro is the official currency although Canadian dollars are accepted.
