Discovering a Hidden French Overseas Territory in North America ( Saint Pierre & Miquelon, France )

Discovering a Hidden French Overseas Territory in North America ( Saint Pierre & Miquelon, France )

in this week’s video I take you to a remote French overseas Territory located just a stone’s throw off the coast of Canada claimed for France by the Explorer jock cier in 1536 this tiny archipelago is the last remaining vestage of the former colony of New France and North America home to over 6,000 French Nationals join me as I spend the next 4 days exploring this unique geographical odity that’s the most authentic slice of Europe that you’ll find this side of the Atlantic welcome to the French overseas territory of St Pierre and [Music] mikon well good morning from St Pierre St Pierre and M colon France I cannot believe I’m here in Europe just off the coast to Canada I’m so close to Canada that my telis Canada SIM card still works with no roaming because I’m only 15 miles from Canada I’m going to head out to do some sightseeing today beautiful views of St Pierre Harbor and Downtown St Pierre with the hills above all right well this is the tasas duport where I am staying here in St Pierre and mikolon honestly I cannot recommend this property enough the rooms are absolutely beautiful really nice hotel really highly recommend that you check it out if you are visiting St Pi molon so I’m out for my first walk here in St Pierre this is one of the many French bakeries here on St Pierre authentic French bakery I’m going to go see if I can get a little pastry for myself before it closes so this is The Patisserie Banger de Graves I believe pretty amazing selection of traditional French baking I got myself a couple croissants eair and beautiful mer as well really cool to really be in France it’s just unbelievable all right well I Am My Own Worst Enemy evidently got this butter brown sugar bun which looks great it’s like a cinnamon bun with no cinnamon and two Tarts the one on the left is a lemon tart and a raspberry tart and I just picked up a beautiful mering these are only € so about a bck 50 Canadian it’s actually really cheap here pure egg whites and sugar you cannot go wrong there [Music] so a couple of local landmarks here this is the lar Museum and archives so that’s the local History Museum I suppose here on St Pi molan I am heading into town definitely amazing views of the curved Harbor here in St Pierre a lot of colorful houses there on the hillside and this is Main Street basically right along the harbor front I’m actually approaching the ferry terminal where I was yesterday and I’m very glad that they picked me up because it’s a bit of a hike out here actually so I’m not sure what the relevance of this Monument is it’s here in this beautiful Park area right along the harbor front in St Pierre uh it just says Memorial and Heritage of New Finland 2013 so not sure it has some pictures of whales on it I’m not sure what they’re commemorating I don’t remember any major event happening in newf Finland in 2013 so your guess is as good as mine so they do have this Harbor front walk here and you can see the fog is rolling back in it’s hard to see my hotel on the other side but you can at least see in front of you so that’s something it definitely has a laidback Vive again there’s only 5,000 people here it’s not a major tourist destination by any stretch of the imagination you kind of create your own fun here and there’s a lot of natural beauty of course and just cultural like enjoying French cuisine and everything else so I’ve made it down here to the main Square basically in St Pierre there’s the visitor information center a little Park here in the middle and this is the ferry terminal where I came in yesterday so this is the Central Square here right in the heart of downtown St Pierre called the plus Charles deal I wouldn’t say it’s the most beautiful architecture I’ve ever seen but it is [Music] colorful so as you can see here it is 4700 km to Paris and only 25 km to New Finland it is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic and part of the European Union which is bizarre because we are in North America of course the archipelago is composed of three main islands the island of St Pierre with a natural Harbor of mikong Lang lad joined by a sand isos and the IL alarin or the Sailor Island welcome to St Pierre and mikolon and this is the post office here in St Pierre leost nice Fountain right here in the center that’s not on anymore and you can see that it is a substantial size town it’s actually quite a ways to walk over here from my hotel it is named after the patron saint to fisherman St Pierre which makes sense quite fitting given its location [Music] oh [Music] all right I’m going to go inside this little Bakery here and see what I can find so I got myself a raspberry tart and A really lovely eair so this looks amazing this was so cheap €290 which is about $4 Canadian very cheap all right trying the eair m not bad at all this thing is just outstandingly beautiful it’s hard to eat to be honest with you just so pretty anyway I cannot believe this would cost like four bucks five bucks a piece in Canada oh man fresh raspberries it’s so good so it’s basically pie crust filled with custard topped with these amazing fresh raspberries amazing so just a block away is this other beautiful City Park Square jofre and you can see this rot Iron Gate very typical French design now I am looking for the AR St Pierre ticket office lot of cute restaurants this is a particularly inviting Street actually there’s a lot going on here really beautiful Greenery hanging baskets and you can see up here a lot of multicolored buildings here really Charming all right I have made it down here to the air St Pierre ticket office I’m going to go inside and get a ticket out to New Finland hopefully on Wednesday which I’ve decided to do because it just saves so much time compared to doing the taxi and fairy combination all right I got my airplane ticket to St John’s Newland in hand it’s a 45 minute trip and honestly it’s only $60 more than taking the bus fairy combination and the bus fairy combination on the way to St John’s from here you do have to stay overnight in Fortune New Finland so that adds a lot of expense there as well this way I can just leave St Pierre and head straight to St John’s where I have another media commitment definitely seamless and it avoids a lot of time and expense for me personally all right I think we we got a coffee over here at this little cafe essential Creations looks pretty decent you can even get a chery board cheese platter 15 euros and change beautiful space it’s a really nice place nice uh antique Vibe here really cute going to get a coffee all right this is my first cup of coffee in a very long time time surprisingly good coffee really I thought it was going to be you know your typical French uh instant but this is brooded two Perfections excellent place really recommend [Music] it so this information post goes through the battery of the point of cannons so I guess this is called the point of cannons and this is where they basically set their cannons during the successive Wars between England and France so most of that fighting of course was in the 18th century but uh this was the cannon Mount right here even has a ridge around it so again this was during a time when the British still controlled New Finland I know it’s part of Canada today but back in the day even up to like the 1940s it was part of the UK you could see why they wanted to protect their Harbor from the British who might have been interested in claiming this island for themselves all right taking a walk out here to the lighthouse beautiful you can see both sides of the harbor over here this looks like more of an industrial a fishing side and there’s the more commercial Ferry Terminal down that way and it is definitely foggy it’s actually a ways down probably good 100 to 200 M off the coast so definitely a lot bigger than I expected I thought it would be a lot more small laidback but uh definitely has a you know mediumsized Town vibe to it I don’t know I don’t know really what I expected I thought it would be more touristy it’s far more authentically French definitely feels authentic so that’s a plus for sure it’s nice and warm though I know it looks probably very cold in this footage it’s still you know 25° it’s just very foggy but yeah pretty Pleasant out actually nice cool Cool Breeze but uh definitely in the 20s so I’ve entered the residential neighborhoods of St Pierre and the grocery store I’m looking for is supposed to be just around the corner here so not too far but pretty interesting to see how the residents of St Pierre live as French Nationals living in North America so this is an interesting art installation basically they have a picture of France I believe on one side and a local area here on the other and kind of Bridging the Gap is kind of what I’m seeing little kid playing with the ball he’s in both worlds kind of abstract so right at the edge of this parking lot basically not quite a square is the fairly interesting St Pierre Cathedral it is a bit worse for wear as you can see around the edges it almost looks like churches I’ve seen in Africa that just don’t have a lot of money for upkeep so you can see concrete pretty much falling off the edges of it but pretty decent Stone Tower here Stone steeple in the center and right next door is the hotel du terto which is basically the territory Hall so the seat of government of St pier and mikolon and the French flags are flying high so some incredibly old and weathered buildings down here on this residential street I did locate the local grocery store so this was recommended to me sh toell epic so I’m going to go in and get some food and looks like they have a lot of President’s Choice products I think they might resell them here in France get them cheap in Canada and so forth like tons of like no-name products which you don’t see every day in France that’s for sure so a lot of Canadian Imports actually prices are pretty high though compared to France for sure like butter 425 bacon € is a bit more expensive here than in Mainland France that’s for sure even cheese is like upwards of €1 and they have plenty of French things here like culle and other products that are uniquely French and as usual plenty of wine and it’s actually very inexpensive there’s like four Euro bottles here so kind of runs the gamut from cheap to expensive but plenty of variety of wine here of course I think I’m going to get this 2018 vintage of the chatau lon Mok looks like it’s made in Bordeaux so good enough for me $588 very cheap so for dinner tonight I am trying out this mikale Le blanch so a white beer from St Pierre and molan 4.5% so we’ll see what this is like it’s pretty light not my favorite beer but Noble effort well I’ll get afterno from St Pierre France it is day three here for me now I am going to do a little Excursion today I was originally going to take the plunge and travel up to mikolon but the connection requires you to get on the ferry at 6:30 in the morning and you’re stuck there until 7:30 p.m. and this is a time of the year during the office season now where there’s not that many tours running so I figured this is probably the wrong time to do m and honestly 11 hours is a long time to be stuck somewhere if there’s not a lot going on so I opted to switch things around a bit I’m going to save mlon for a different trip to the archipelago I always love saving at least one destination or one area of a place just so I have something to look forward to if I ever come back so I’ve decided to head to what they call I guess the fisherman’s Island the IL Marin which is a very historic part of St p and molan and it’s about a 10 to 15 minute fairy ride away so sounds pretty interesting looks like there is a museum of the archipelago there plus a little cafe and a lot of old buildings and I’ve heard from multiple people that it is the true cultural highlight here in St Pierre and michan and this is supposed to be the best cafe in St Pier so I can’t wait to try this out it opens at 300 p.m. they’re on their lunch break right now so I have 12 minutes to wait but uh going to get myself a coffee here and see what all the fuss is about all right they have quite the selection of coffees available everything from Cafe Olay to Flat whites to venois apagados plenty of selection so that’s good and a lot of chocolate milk as well so looks delicious one flat white yeah yes thank you sorry no pretty cute interior and this Fedora is definitely kind of Drifter Dave core though I don’t rock the as much as I used to my head grew too big or they shrunk all right this is letit gravier little boat that’s going to take me over to Il Marin it leaves in 20 minutes so you can see it’s it’s a tiny little thing 60 it’s not too bad whatsoever looking forward to this all right I have just boarded letit graier the small little ferry that is going to take me across the harbor here to IL alarin which is about 10 or 15 minutes away [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right I just arrived here on IL alarin the ferry is heading back over to St Pierre now as you can see it’s not very far this little island is just off the harbor here in St Pierre so this is the massive St Pierre Island right here and this is Ila Moren so it goes on from down there kind of Curves around here these period historic buildings all of those kind of reaches to the end there so it’s about 2 km long she was saying but uh pretty decent views here of the St Pierre Skyline out there in the distance and if you have Eagle Vision which is a bit hard on a day like today you can actually see the New Finland Coast there in the distance so he’s leaving back to St Pierre that’s the boat I took coming in and it’s a bit of a rocky ride once you leave that protection of the seaw wall so I was bumping up down like mad you can see all of these beautiful old buildings there’s even a church there on the hill so definitely a ton of character here I can see why it’s so highly recommended it’s very quaint there is a cafe I think it’s this one right here leel closes at 5:00 so I have about an hour basically to uh see things before everything kind of shuts down for the day I’m going to take a walk here looks like they have a fort that way wow there’s quite a bit here actually a cape see see the shape of the island here might as well go for a little stroll really evocative old buildings you can see this one here it’s so weathered and rust Stained It’s hard to know where to start it’s all very I suppose overwhelming and there’s no pavement here whatsoever you’re walking on the grass so this would be pretty impossible I think to visit during the winter months you can see how wind swept and decaying this place is just so much kind of rot over time but it still manages to be this charming Place some of the old foundations here houses that didn’t quite survive so according to this information sign this is the former location of the Cafe de laf France which was one of the most important Cabaret of the island back in the day also called The Cafe nuel this was one of the most important venues for social interaction back in the day and you can see not much remains of it just this Rocky Foundation that’s about it but this here is the museum arude and they are closed so no such luck sorry I’m pressing up against the window here you can see it is pretty interesting inside they have a lot of displays but they must have closed for the season I’m not sure why the tourist information office said it would be open but you kind of roll with the punches when you come to these remote destinations often they don’t even know themselves when things are open so it is is what it is going to go check out the church now all right this is the local church here on ilam Marin I’m guessing they don’t do Services anymore but this was once the religious heart of the island as you can see and it’s in pretty good condition All Things Considered so I’m sure locals still come in here to pray and so forth any devote Catholics and right over here is a little Monument I’m not sure what it is maybe World War I or two let’s climb up here and see what we got going on beautiful beautiful views of the ocean here wow just taking it all in as I walk up but amazing Windswept coast of St Pierre so cool and yeah it’s a World War I Memorial the dead of 1914 to [Music] 18 so that is looking down towards the other end of St Pierre Island and over here this is another Cemetery right along the water you can see how angry the seas are here as well so apologies for the wind noise up here it’s just incredibly windy if you look really closely you can see Newland very easily from here it’s just across the way there really cool to see Canada just off the coast here so cool I’m going to head down to the little cafe and see see if I can get a little snack or drink if they’re even open I guess we’ll find out but this is looking South I guess along the island beautiful sights towards the south end and again this island is too big I can’t see this in an hour and a half the tourist information office kind of let me down it’s probably more like a 4-Hour Excursion if you want to see the whole thing I am literally the only person here though like literally the only person here I don’t even know if there’s anybody else on the island right now it’s absolutely incredible people must live here though but nobody is out so this is L jequel and going to see if I can go get some refreshments in here what he had in his hands looked really good so this is one of the I think the only business here on the island B shop yeah we have CA okay zero red what kind of beer you have is it local beer yeah one I’ll try that one yeah come uh six six okay oh super cool thank you it’s okay to sit here yeah got myself the mik the melon beer and this is the ale which I haven’t tried yet has a puffin on it so pretty cool pner do Mass so Piller of the Seas I believe it’s actually a lot better than the white beer I had the other day so if you’re coming to St p and mikolon this is a good choice the male really good so the owner of the Meson jel told me that it’s probably not worth my time to go see the lighthouse she said it’s not that exciting and she suggested that I go see a shipwreck that’s actually down here you can see these beautiful old homes here she also verified that uh nobody lives here year round so there’s a population of 30 people here during the summer months one of the main reasons is that they do not have electricity or running water on this island so it’s very cold to live here in the wintertime pretty much people summer cottages if nothing else I’m guessing this is kind of like the center of the island where most people that do stay here over the summer months live you can see there’s like playground equipment so for sure some people have these Cottages over the summer months to enjoy the island yeah it’s pretty pretty de I literally am one of the only people here on the island today but she tells me there is a shipwreck right ahead of me here about 500 M down so I should be able to go check it out and head back to the boat before it leaves in about 25 minutes [Music] wow honestly this is incredible massive shipwreck so cool transpacific I don’t know the history here but uh definitely an old shre from probably the 1900s and beautiful views of the little Hill on this North End of the island so cool but I got to go because I don’t want to miss this boat boat leaves in 7 minutes okay I got to get back SHO oh I love this part of travel I cut it close a lot unfortunately horrible time management but uh this was a fun little detour you can see the little boat approaching so I think I’ll be okay to get on it’s right there but man I cut that close you can see it’s a bit of a rocky ride so just know that it’s definitely not smooth sailing and uh saying goodbye to Il Marin it was definitely worth the little detour nice little Excursion from St Pierre pretty nice day I definitely saw a lot [Music] today so surprisingly enough St Pierre and mikolon has one of the only or the only Home Hardware location outside of Canada so Home Hardware is officially an international brand I had no idea so they also have super U here which I last visited in cir so this is the main grocery store here in St Pierre and mikon they pretty much have everything here so what I love about this store is there there are so many French Brands like this Bonduel and uh the U super mea brand but uh also right next to Canadian Brands like compliments from soie Safeway and uh Almer so a lot of variety they definitely get a lot from Canada here as well so I love that you can get so many French products here like so many things are imported from France and it’s not even expensive of course cuz there’s no duties I have literally been looking for these in Canada for the past 4 years I tried these back in 2019 when I visited Paris and these are so good these bonan tartlettes so that is pretty much it for me from St Pierre we going to head back to the hotel get ready to go to the airport I did miss out on a few things I wanted to go to the badier the Viewpoint over overlooking St Pierre but unfortunately it’s just been so foggy that there’s not really been any clear day where the top of that mountain has been visible so it’s just kind of a lousy time of year to come here just with the weather that goes for New Finland too it’s the weather turns pretty foul here into September October and onward so July and August are really your best time to come to St Pierre and molan even then you might get some foul weather but a lot less likely that time of year all right this is my last toser rev visit here in St Pierre so looking forward to gorging myself one last time on these delicious French pastries before I leave French territory behind all right I am heading to the airport Airport’s only 5 minutes away or so from the hotel so it’s really [Music] convenient very nice here yes very beautiful [Music] all right I just got dropped off here at the St Pierre airport this is airport code fsp and I’m ready to check in for my flight to St John’s New Finland this is going to be a 45-minute flight very close and it was about $200 Canadian €23 [Music] all right I off the plane from St Pierre landed in St John’s New Finland I hope you enjoyed this video and if you did please give it a big thumbs up subscribe if you haven’t already and don’t forget to click the Bell icon to be notified when new episodes are posted thanks again for watching and I will see you in the next video [Music] you [Music]

Just off the coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador lies the last remaining piece of France in North America – the small archipelago of Saint-Pierre & Miquelon. Join me in this video as I explore the territory’s quaint and charming capital of St. Pierre, home to over 6,000 French nationals, home to the majority of the archipelago’s attractions and things to do. I begin my exploration with a visit to one of the city’s many boulangeries & patisseries to devour some delicious French pastries, before burning off the calories with a long walk along the beautiful harbourfront to the town’s main square. There, I explore the old St. Pierre Cathedral, visit the iconic lighthouse, and check out some abandoned cannons pointed right across the water towards their former enemies in Newfoundland.

After exploring the capital, I take the cheap 6 Euro ferry ride across the harbour to historic Ile-aux-Marins, the oldest part of this small French territory, with plenty of colourful crumbling houses, a beautiful colonial church, a fascinating shipwreck, a historic bar & restaurant, and some of the archipelago’s best museums.

St. Pierre & Miquelon is definitely a fascinating place, and I enjoyed my four day visit to this bizarre sliver of France in North America. With daily ferry service from Fortune, Newfoundland and daily flights to St. John’s, Newfoundland, getting here is easy. I’d highly recommend a visit to anyone looking for a unique way to visit the actual nation of France without heading overseas or to the Caribbean. Have you been to St. Pierre & Miquelon or is it on your bucket list? Let me know in the comments below!

00:00 Intro
01:12 Terrasses du Port Hotel & Spa
01:33 Patisserie Des Graves (bakery)
02:47 Harbourfront Walk
04:07 St. Pierre Town Square
06:30 Boulangerie-Patisserie Beck
07:19 Square Joffre & Air St. Pierre Ticket
08:33 Essentiel Creations Effet-Mer (Cafe)
09:14 Pointe aux Canons (Cannon battery)
09:53 Lighthouse
11:24 St. Pierre Cathedral
12:07 French minimarket
13:28 Why I’m not going to Miquelon
14:46 ROC Cafe Glacier
15:32 Ferry to Ile-aux-Marins
16:31 Exploring Ile-aux-Marins
19:00 The Museum’s closed
19:30 Ile-aux-Marins Cathedral
19:55 WWI Memorial
21:34 Local Beer @ La Maison Jezequel
22:40 Walking to the shipwreck
23:59 Transpacific Shipwreck
24:46 Sailing back to St. Pierre
25:16 Home Hardware in St. Pierre?
25:29 Super U Supermarket
26:17 Heading to Airport
27:37 Flying to St. John’s
28:33 Outro

Episode 194 | #NorthAmerica #Europe #France | #StPierre #saintpierreetmiquelon | Filmed September 2023

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Check out the tourism providers featured in this video:

Terrasses du Port Hotel & Spa – https://en.tdpspm.com/

Download the following music used in this episode with a free trial of Epidemic Sound! (https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/26j8v5/)

Future Vibes by Qeeo
Apres La Nuit by Sight of Wonders
Like in France by Trabant 33
Mes Jolies by Trabant 33
Paris in Spring by Trabant 33
Sjangeli by Luwaks

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