Saturday 22 June - St. Pierre

First thing

It was very foggy all day today.  Breakfast included croissants which were a little heavy but quite good.

There was a short tour of the town and island - the views were somewhat restricted by the fog. The total population of the two islands is 6,000, 5,500 on St. Pierre and 500 on Miquelon.  They must be heavily supported from Paris. Most supplies come weekly from Halifax yet the one supermarche had a good supply of french cheeses and the baguettes were quite good.

A French police car with French registration plates yet a Newfoundland garbage container with a St. Pierre green bin

There are a lot of horses on the island, used now for riding. There is no chevaline or horse drawn buggys

The red capstans are used to haul the boats out of the water

This afternoon we walked out to look at the lighthouse, now decommissioned. An old cannon has been used as a stabiizer in front .

A retired fisherman invited us into the "offices" of the fisherman's union. There were a number of beautiful models and many photographs of earlier, busier times.

We had a very good dinner this evening at the restaurant attached to the hotel.
We started with Kir Mure (Mary) and Kir Breton (With cider - Colin)
Shared a serving of pate de foie gras with toasts - it was so good I forgot to take a picture

Properly seared scallops with tasty rice (Mary) - white wine

A well prepared magret de canard (Colin) - red wine

The fries were good

Poire Helene (left - Mary. Lemon ice cream and raspberry ice cream (Colin)

The meal was prepared by a very competent chef and the two servers were efficient and very friendly. All told this was an excellent meal and the prices were not out of line for equivalent items in Paris.  We had a reservation for 1900 when the restaurant opened.  It was quite empty until about 2030 when it began to fill up with both visitors and locals.