# Saint-Pierre & Miquelon: Is it a country or what? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2001, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002 "2001-08-30T20:49:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/1 "2001-08-30T20:49:40Z")
I was perusing some Interlink information and noticed a reference to the French enclave of [Saint-Pierre & Miquelon](http://www.st-pierre-et-miquelon.com/english.html) - a group of islands off the coast of Newfoundland. Their website is rather vague as to its geopolitical status, although I gather it is analogous to a United States territorial possession like Guam or Puerto Rico. Does anyone know the whole story? Anyone ever been there? and why would the intelligence community make a point of singling this place out? As far as I can tell, it’s full of cod fisherman (and it’s been a long time since Prohibition). ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/2 "2001-08-30T20:51:10Z")
That’s **Intelink** , _not_ Interlink. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/3 "2001-08-30T21:37:29Z")
The website says “Saint-Pierre and Miquelon is France’s oldest overseas territory.” I don’t see anything incredibly vague about that. No, it’s not a country; it’s territory claimed by France. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/4 "2001-08-30T21:46:14Z")
The CIA World Factbook is a reference you should remember for things like this: [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sb.html](http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sb.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kamandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5daacb/32.png) [@Kamandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamandi)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/5 "2001-08-30T22:15:31Z")
I grew up in Newfoundland, and visited St P&M in 1993. My wife spent four months learning French there in 1988. Yup, it’s French territory. Only a few miles off the south coast of Newfoundland, right in the middle of some prime (well, formerly prime) fishing waters. Two main islands: St Pierre contains the community of, well, St Pierre. It’s a quaint little village. Stone buildings, narrow cobblestone streets, tiny European cars. Very scenic. If you squint, you might mistake it for a small village in France. Great wine, horrid weather. Miquelon is larger than St Pierre and, IIRC, contains more of a collection of houses than an actual village. More fishing, and sheep herding, I think. The biggest local industry is probably tourism, now that the fishing has more-or-less dried up. A one-hour ferry ride connects the islands to Newfoundland, and there is a tiny airstrip where you could hop a small plane to Newfoundland, or maybe as far as Halifax, Nova Scotia. The whole place is surprisingly beautiful in a rustic, rugged, wind-swept kind of way. Each island can’t be more than a few miles long. When I visited in 1993 the locals were very friendly, and spoke _very_ little English, despite their proximity to an exclusively English-speaking part of Canada. They are quite isolated, but as far as I could tell, consider themselves as French as anyone in mainland France. Not much to do there these days other than drink and watch satellite TV. It’s been French ever since European colonization. I always thought it was kind of cool having a piece of France so close to home. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/6 "2001-08-31T00:42:37Z")
Those islands were the only territory in North America that France was allowed to keep once they were knocked off the continent by the British after the French & Indian War in the middle 1700s. Not sure why they didn’t get absorbed into one of the Canadian colonies though. The semi-recent film La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (English title is Widow of St. Pierre) took place on the island of St. Pierre (duh!). ---
**Author:** ![Yeah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/dbc845/32.png) [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/7 "2001-08-31T00:52:30Z")
I thought the main industry was smuggling. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/8 "2001-08-31T04:41:47Z")
Actually, these days the main industry in [Saint-Pierre et Miquelon](http://www.st-pierre-et-miquelon.com/english.html) may be oil drilling. My newish map of Canada (1999) has territorial limits for S-P et M, and there’s a blob around the islands, with a long rectangular strip extending southwards off the continental shelf. I read in the Globe and Mail newspaper that there is a dispute between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia over interprovincial boundaries and drilling rights, so no-one is drilling there. They all went to the strip of French territory, whose owners are more than glad to hand out licenses and sell the drillers supplies. BTW, S-P et M is a “Territorial Collectivity” of France, so it’s basically like Guam, etc for the USA, and is on the same basis as the French West Indies. Which presumably means, that they’ll be using the euro come January. I think. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Stewart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Dave\_Stewart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Stewart)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/9 "2001-08-31T06:41:05Z")
That’s interesting, because I was under the assumption that all territories of France were considered part of France. ---
**Author:** ![SFCanadian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@SFCanadian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SFCanadian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/10 "2001-08-31T06:53:30Z")
My partner used to have a boss who was from St. Pierre and she always said it _IS_ France. It isn’t seen as a territory any more than Hawaii is seen as a territory of the U.S. So I’m sure when France goes to the Euro, they will too. SFCanadian ---
**Author:** ![Tamealien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Tamealien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamealien)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/11 "2001-08-31T08:55:38Z")
Information from the “Geonomenclature of the European Union” France has four “French overseas departments” - Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana. These are part of France, just like Paris. In a US context I guess these are equivalent to Hawaii Then there are four “overseas territories” - New Caledonia, Wallis & Futuna Islands, French Polynesia and French Southern Territories and two “territories under specific status” - Mayotte and St Pierre & Miquelon. These have some local autonomy, but are administered by France - more like Guam I guess. ---
**Author:** ![TheThill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheThill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheThill)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saint-pierre-miquelon-is-it-a-country-or-what/79002/12 "2001-08-31T11:00:26Z")
They must be going to the euro – the franc is going away with or without them.