Un brin de France – St. Pierre et Miquelon

We drove from the top of the Central area to Fortune to catch the ferry to St. Pierre et Miquelon.  While picking up our tickets, we asked the clerk about a place to buy fresh fish.  She told us to visit her father in law at the dock where we picked up 1 ¼ lbs of fresh cod for $3!!!  Amazing!!  When we got back to the campground, I realized the fridge was off, possibly because we had so much wind and rain while driving from north to south (our first and pretty well only day of bad weather so far).  Eileen had given us about 2 lbs of gorgeous sea scallops that had to be cooked at this point.  I wasn’t going to risk them going bad.  So I fried them up and we had an incredible feast with just simple scallops and rice.

The next morning, we were taking the ferry to St. Pierre. I had been forewarned that the sea can be rough and people are throwing up all over the place.  I’d had a similar experience with a same style of ferry in Madeira, so I knew to only have a cup of tea for breakfast.  Sure enough, the sea was rough on the crossing.  We sat at the front of the centre row with Helen and Lucien Langlois, our new buddies from NH (who both speak French like they were coached by the language police in Quebec).  The crew eyed us as they prepared wet towels and barf bags to distribute.  But I have a secret technique that involves singing.  If I feel sick, I sing!  So I did chirp out a few bars of Alouette while the crew member did a bit of a jig, between handing out bags and towels to other passengers.  We made it safely (for our small group anyway) to the French shores of St. Pierre.

Leon and I checked into the Hotel Robert and had a bit of brunch which consisted of buckwheat crepes stuffed with ham, emmental cheese and an egg.  We washed it all down with a couple of good cups of coffee. Yumm!!

Then off we went on a long walk to explore the town.  Unfortunately, it was very foggy, so we hardly could see the colourful houses.  But we managed to get the French flavour, stopping for a pastry and a cup of tea in the afternoon while listening to a “chansonier”, then purchasing a bottle of French table wine to have before dinner.  As we arrived back at our hotel, we ran into Helen and Lucien and asked them to share the wine with us. Leon tried to open it with his cheap hotel corkscrew, then Lucien got into the act.  How many Gunners does it take to open a bottle of wine, for crying out loud?  They finally borrowed a corkscrew from the bar.  The wine was a bit heavy, not really to my taste.

We then all went to dinner at l’Ile de France restaurant where I ate a dinner of tagliatelle with prawns and scallops.  Very rich and delicious!  My only complaint might have been that they only gave us the equivalent of a half baguette to share between the four of us.

Off to bed we went and we got up late, just in time to see a patch of blue sky.  Unfortunately, by the time we showered and checked out of the hotel, the skies were foggy again.  We enjoyed a typical breakfast of croissant, bread and coffee and met up with Helen and Lucien once again for another long walk and a quick stop at the boulangerie for a few baguettes to go.  Leon mailed some postcards from the local post office and we were ready for the ferry ride back, which was completely uneventful.

Canadian consulate – with Helen and Lucien