The ferry is a new boat and rather strange. It has a large open vehicle deck which isn’t being used and three inside decks with airplane style seats. It also has a very small outside deck with seats which they kept locked until the ferry was underway. We took seats on the topmost deck right next to the door to the outside deck in order to go out as soon as possible.
The vehicle deck was not accessible and empty except for a luggage wagon. Vehicle ferry service was supposed to start this year but the dock infrastructure in Fortune has not been built yet. After walking the narrow streets of St. Pierre I can’t imagine bringing a car to the island. I expect that the main intent is to provide better shipping to the islands by truck.
Once the outside door was unlocked we went out and found a couple of seats out of the wind. It was a mini-pelagic birding trip from then on. We did this in both directions and managed to see most of the seabirds we had hoped to see in Newfoundland. We had all three locally common shearwaters, Great, Manx and Sooty. We saw all the alcids, Atlantic Puffinss, Common and Thick-billed Murres and Razorbills. We also had a few kittiwakes and gannets fly by. We didn’t identify any jaegers, but it was probably our lack of experience rather than a lack of presence.
We were on St. Pierre in an hour and a half, but they are in yet another time zone, a half hour ahead of Newfoundland time. I set my watch to match since the return ferry boarding time was based on St. Pierre local time. We quickly went through Customs and Immigration, had our passports stamped and were now in France, or at least a territorial collectivety of France. Most of the residents live on the island St. Pierre and the total population is less than Cohasset.
We were sort of expecting France, but got more of a French version of Newfoundland. It was a strange mix in the town of St. Pierre, where we spent our afternoon. It was a town of very narrow streets with more traffic than we expected. There was no real downtown with shops and restaurants, except maybe right across from the ferry dock. The shops and restaurants were spread throughout the town with a few on each street intermixed with residential houses.
Our first stop was Les Delices de Josephine, a “salon de the” with coffee, lunches and pastries as well. We had coffee, croissants and very friendly service. It was the most French place we found in town. After refreshment, we walked around the town looking in shops and grocery stores. Ellen was hoping for some French specialties, but the mostly stocked the same brands as on Newfoundland. We also checked out the surprisingly few restaurants in town, but most of them had a couple of offerings other than burgers and pizza.
We ended up by going back to Les Delices de Josephine where we had very tasty quiche, Lorraine for Ellen, Tuna and Ratatouille for me. This we finished off with a couple of great pastries for dessert.
We walked back through town, but all the shops were closed from noon to two, so we continued down along the waterfront and ended up at the Musee L’Arche, the territorial museum. It was up above the harbor, with a wide lawn running down the hill in front of it. The lawn was in the process of being converted to the venue for this weekend’s Rock n’Rhum festival with a stage and lots of booths for vendors. Being only Wednesday, nothing was open yet...I couldn’t get the T-shirt.
We went to the museum instead. It was primarily a history museum with an exhibit tracing the occupation of the islands from prehistory to the present. It was mostly in French, but some explanatory panels were in both French and English. They also had a guide I borrowed that gave translations of all the labeled exhibits.
The prehistory was like Newfoundland’s, with the same groups visiting the islands to fish and hunt. The European history began with a visit by Jacques Cartier, but the islands alternated between French and English control. Every time there was a war between them, the English would take the islands and dispossess the settlers. When the war was over, they would give them back to France.
It was primarily a French fishing outpost and thrived until the fishery declined. It haf a brief economic boom in the 1930s due to Prohibition in the US. Canada also had prohibition at the same time, but Canadian alcohol producers were still allowed to make and ship their products out of the country. The couldn’t ship to the US, but they could ship to France...St. Pierre, that is. Enormous amounts of liquor was shipped to St. Pierre and then smuggled into the US from there. The economy pretty much died when Prohibtion ended and the final nail came in 1992 when Canada instituted the Cod moratorium and the fishing industry collapsed. The museum exhibits showed the changes through time of life on the islands and its fishery.
One of the last exhibits was the territory’s guillotine. It was evidently only used once. It was France’s form of execution until 1980s when the country abolished capital punishment.
As the last toehold of France in North America, the territory seems to have much support from France, much of the income, aside from local services, is in infrastructure improvements and other public project.
We finshed our day in St. Pierre with a final stroll through town, picking up a nice loaf of bread at a boulangerie, and then along the waterfront where we stopped for ice cream...soft serve being dispensed by a pair of very slow young women. We had no Euros, but they took Canadian dollars...but gave change in Euros.
Now we had a five Euro note...what to do? Chocolate of course, French chocolate from a specialty shop on the waterfont.
Our return trip was the mirror image of the morning, passports stamped, a sunny voyage and more pelagic birding. We had to go through Canadian customs on landing and one more passport stamp.
By now, it was time for dinner. Fortune has even fewer eateries than St. Pierre. We tried Doc’s Diner, but it was unbearably hot inside. We finally ended up at the Tea Room across from the ferry terminal. It was simple food and run by the same organization that runs the campground. They provide traing and jobs for adults with developmental disabilities. We met several of their clients/employees at both the campground and tea room and all we were very friendly, helpful and enjoyed their jobs.
After dinner and a stroll back to the campground, we called it a day.
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