Monday, August 23, 2010

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.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

You take good pictures. I'd love to see that town myself one day.

Wierd car, though.

Elspeth Futcher said...

Wedding pictures, followed by shots of a guillotine...highly significant.

Laura Eno said...

Looooong name for the museum! And yes, I'm starving now, thank you. :)

PLEASE share your sordid affair on Cathy's page for us. :)

Fox Lee said...

Mmm.....cheesecake. I love food porn!

Unknown said...

Alan... great pic of you at dinner...

... Um, but next time, leave your Tonka truck at home.

Alan W. Davidson said...

Jeremy- Thanks. Yeah, the place was full of tiny cars. And a few really big pick-ups, driven by young guys.

Elspeth- That's funny...I hadn't given a moments thought to the juxtaposition of those photos...

Laura- Here...*passes Laura a chunk of cheesecake*. But what fun would that be if I revealed all of my mysteries? Maybe I'll make stuff up and send it to Cathy...

Nat- He, he, he...food porn. I should have posted my photo of the creme brulee...

Ant- Thanks. Tonka truck. That takes me back to childhood. We can't have little cars like that aroung here or the teens would have it flipped over in no time!

Cathy Olliffe-Webster said...

YES Creme brulee!
Hey you, I really enjoyed the travelogue tone of your post and especially all the descriptions of food. (Food porn indeed!)
Am looking forward to posting stuff about your natty nuptials!
And ya, that pix of you in the restaurant makes you look very handsome.

Laurita said...

You looked so relaxed at dinner. Wre you educating yourself about French wine?

Your photos are beautiful. It's so nice and colourful there.

Katey said...

Haha definitely go for the wedding story!

I particularly liked the duck house, the bunny logo (OMG!!), and Mme. La Guillotine, of course.

My husband has a thing for French wine. (Me, I want Italian!) Now we'll REALLY have to go...

Marisa Birns said...

Of course that serving of dessert was just a sample, right? Like when they serve a bit of wine for one to taste and then nod head, and waiter gives more.

Loved the colorful houses. And you must have picked up the car and walked it to where you needed to be. No one could fit there.

But with that very little bit of dessert, who knows.

K.C. Shaw said...

That duck house is my favorite! Well, except for the food, mmm. If I was a duck, I'd order the caramel cheesecake every day and have it delivered to my little yellow duck house. Where I would have to throw it away because ducks can't eat with forks.

Great pictures! That's a good one of you in the restaurant. You look very relaxed, like maybe you're contemplating that 12yo Scotch. :)

Alan W. Davidson said...

Cathy- You say such kind things *blushing*. I hope my wedding tail will entertain...

Laurita- I'm glad that you liked them. Ah, so you notice the empty 1L carafe in the photo...

Katey- Perhaps all the politicians in DC should be assigned one of those little cars to drive around in (with bunny logo included, of course).

Marisa- I doubt very much I could fit in the car...especially after all of those desserts...

KC- Getting delivered cheesecake everyday in your duckhouse? Jeez, you should be writing fiction! ;) Thanks, I'm glad that you enjoyed the pictures.

David Barber said...

Great photos Alan. The houses are very....err....brightly painted. A song springs to mind, you may not know it but you'll know the place..."What's the story in Ballamory, wouldn't you like to know." Google it and look at the houses. :-)