Brittany's Blog

St Pierre is a beautiful island. But, it’s also a small island with only a few roads. These roads can easily be experienced on a bike.

The local tourist center directed us to a B&B that also rented bikes. They weren’t the most desirable bikes and they certainly had their issues. Still, they were bikes. And off we went to experience St. Pierre.

Fully living up to gaper-status.

View of St. Pierre as we headed north out of town.

Exploring a side road to the north, we stumbled upon a system of hiking trails.

Some trails were well traveled, others were not. We went for a short hike.

View of St. Pierre.

The higher elevation areas of St. Pierre are dotted with lakes.

Me with St. Pierre in the background.

The road to the north quickly dead-ended, so we headed back through the town of St. Pierre.

We then followed a road heading southwest. From the viewpoint at Cap aux Basques.

This road too eventually ended at a point on the island.

But we couldn’t help exploring the point further for some great views.

The island of Miquelon-Langlade is in the distance.

We then headed back to the town of St. Pierre, just in time to see a wonderful sailboat coming into the harbor.

We were sad to say goodbye to St. Pierre the following day. The French food and the French way of life are easily missed. But, it was time to head back to Newfoundland!

The map below shows our general biking route. The pink line marks our first ride north out of town. We then turned around, following our original route back into town. From there, we headed south west out of the town of St. Pierre, following the more southern route marked in yellow. We followed this to the end, and then followed the same road back until it split, at which point we took the more northern route.

Continuing the TR’s from my Newfoundland trip in mid-August, we took a ferry to the island of St. Pierre which is a French colony only a few miles off the coast of Newfoundland. In a short ferry ride, we were whisked into a different country. Despite it’s proximity to Canada, St. Pierre feels distinctly French. French is spoken everywhere (sometimes difficult to find English menus), the Euro is the currency, French wine is plentiful and wonderfully priced, and the even use the Euro-style outlets for their electricity. On top of that, St. Pierre is full of beautiful scenes.

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There are numerous small islands that dot the coast surrounding Newfoundland. Strangely, a few of those islands still belong to France. Yep, that’s right- a French colony still remains off the coast of Canada. The islands are called St. Pierre and Miquelon. In only an hour and a half ferry ride from Fortune, Newfoundland you can be in France!

Photo from Graphic Guide

How exactly just two small islands off of Newfoundland remained part of France is kind of a weird one. But, it’s likely that the French partially kept the islands in order to maintain fishing rights in the area. St. Pierre is rich with 500 years of fishing history.

Shoreline shortly after leaving Fortune.

The fishing boats are the sea gull’s best friend.

A whale came to say hello.

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I have returned home after a week in Newfoundland (Canada) and St. Pierre (France). I still have a few adventures and lots more pictures to blog about from our trip to these places. But, before posting these, I wanted to go back and share a few pictures that were lost in the shuffle when I was trying to post blog entries on the road.

St. John’s

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After hitting up the St. John’s area of Newfoundland where we also saw Signal Hill and Cape Spear, we then headed south down to Marystown and then Fortune. Fortune appears a bit stark at first.

But, if you look a bit closer, you’ll find the real beauty that Fortune has to offer.

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Not a far drive from St. John’s is Cape Spear. Easily seen from Signal Hill, Cape Spear is the eastern most point in North America.

The day was foggy, making views more obscure, but perhaps a bit more interesting.

The sea, crashing against the rocks of the most eastern point in North America.

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Signal Hill is the name given to the hill that stands on the northeast corner of St. John’s harbor.

The name is appropriately given because military used this hill for signaling- be it using a gun to go off to warn of invasion or fire, or via flags signals. Signal Hill has also been the focus of many battles in recent history. In 1762, the Battle of Signal Hill took place, which resulted in the French surrendering St. John’s to the British, ending the North American Seven Year’s War. During World War II, Signal Hill was viewed as a crucial location to aid in the Allies war in the Atlantic. 1,000 American troops were stationed at Signal Hill to operate four anti-aircraft guns and maintain a 24-hour surveillance of the area.

Another interesting historical event happened on Signal Hill in 1901 when Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless transmission, in this case coming from Poldhu.

From downtown, you can drive up to the lookout of Signal Hill. But, walking doesn’t take long (20-30 minutes) and provides better views. So, we chose to walk. Five minutes from our hotel we saw this:

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It’s impossible to think of Newfoundland and Labrador without thinking of the breed of dogs that bear their name. But, many Americans are unaware of the history of the area. For example, did you know that Newfoundland is not a separate province from Labrador? Sure, Newfoundland is an island and Labrador is on the mainland, but the two come together. In fact, in 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador (that’s the name of the province) became the 10th province to enter the Canadian Confederation, which had existed since 1867. Prior to that, it was ruled by the United Kingdom. The current population of this province is 510,900- about 1/10th the size of Colorado’s population in a land that is about one and a half times the size.

I arrived late last night, with my parents, in the capitol of St. John’s. One of the fastest growing cities in Canada, St. John’s still only hosts a population of 187,000. St. John’s is often referred to as “North America’s Oldest City” since it had year-round settlement as early as 1620. But, this is somewhat misleading. If you know you’re history you’ll know that Santa Fe bacame New Mexico’s capital back in 1610. But, St. John’s is the oldest British settlement to hold city-status since it’s establishment. Either way, it’s old. And you can feel the history as you wander through the streets.

We had the opportunity to wander through the streets of St. John’s today and here’s what we saw.

A view of the harbor from our hotel, the Battery. St. John’s obviously has a rich history of fishing and trade.

The streets are as rich with color as they are with history.

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