Saint Pierre, part deux

In this segment, I have included photos from: the streets of Saint Pierre, in a restaurant and inside the modern Musée et Archives de la Collectivité Territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. Or as I prefer to call it...the Museum.

The streets were foggy and drizzly most of our visit but I have tried to include a few pictures that show the hilly nature of the town and the colourful homes, qualities it shares with neighbouring Newfoundland. Three days (one evening, 2 full days, and a morning) are enough to take in everything as you can walk from one end of town to the other in about 1/2 hour.

There is a small museum of cinema, but we avoided it as it was a bit pricey to get in and smelled like granny's damp basement. The main Museum, however, is very modern and heavily subsidized by the French government. There are a lot of artifacts depicting the early fishing heritage of the islands and displays that describe the history of the early native settlers. Again, a background similar to that of Newfoundland. The guillotine is very popular with the tourists but is tucked away in a corner as if they were embarrased at its presence. Interesting. You can browse the Museum web site here. Not to worry, click on the 'translate' button to get the information in English.

There was one large liquor store in town that had a large selection of many beverages. Sadly, my knowledge of French wines is lacking (c'est dommage!) so I didn't purchase any. However, a fancy 12 year old Scotch winked at me...

We discovered that there are five main restaurants where fine French cuisine was available. It took a day to discover the quirky hours (by our standards, at least). They opened for lunch from about 12 until 2pm and then closed until about 7pm and stayed open until about 10:00pm. A word of advise...a reservation is always necessary in Saint Pierre. I have never been to France, so I can't compare the meals. However, I have been to Montreal and Quebec City and the dining was comparable to the fine eats available in those locations. I had a very nice pepper steak one night and a fillet of cod with a very nice coating of almonds served on a bed of peppers. I could continue but I think we should move on to the pictures.

Street scene looking east towards the harbour

Narrow streets and colourful houses aplenty

The duck house in the pond near the cemetery

Once a forge, this building demonstrates the architecture of over 100 years ago. The use of timbers, filled in with bricks is visible on the near end wall

The gardens in front of the cemetery

A small French import called an Aixam. How small is it? Scroll down....

Farther....

Farther....

Yep, that's me protecting my privates with a plastic bag. Small car, eh?


This was the logo just to the left of the door (V took this photo, not me...)


Relaxing in a nice restaurant after a day of walking in the fog

Can't go wrong with caramel cheesecake and coffee (anyone hungry yet?)

One of the many artifacts on display in the Museum and Archives. Admission price is 4 Euros each (about $5.50)

While in the museum, a wedding party arrived for photos in the premises.

The happy couple...and a little kid. That reminds me, Cathy Olliffe has been nagging me about a wedding story to post at her blog. Ours was a sordid affair...should I participate?

The infamous guillotine. It was used in 1889. The one and only execution by guillotine in North America.

Slide on in. Try it on for size.

Want a cliche? A clean, close shave...


I hope you enjoyed the second installment. I'll close off here but will return for the final segment, part trois, where I shall continue the morbidity with a pictorial tour of the Saint Pierre cemetery.