St. Pierre, with a French Accent

It's not far away, but it's not easy to get to from here.

It's small but well known.

It was a hub, an important commercial link in its day.

It's the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, just down the coast from here.

The archipelago is truly just down the coast from us here in Rose Blanche; it's only about 210 kms via the seagull flies. However, after exhausting the possibilities of going by boat and air, we've decided to take the most direct driving route, 950 kms across the Province and down the Burin Peninsula, then ferry about 50 kms to St. Pierre. On one hand it seems ridiculous to travel so far to get to a place so close, but on the other, we haven't seen eastern Newfoundland, so we're looking forward to that.

We'll be towing Penny, our 13 ft travel trailer, and camping with some degree of comfort. However, when we get to the port in Fortune on the Burin Peninsula, we'll leave Penny parked and board the passenger only ferry to St. Pierre.  

As it turns out, we're probably just 25 or 30 years too late to go all the way by water. From the 1930s  until the 1990s there was lots of boat traffic between St. Pierre and Newfoundland's south coast outports. Apparently rumrunning was the mainstay of the underground economy, and without doubt back then, we could have hopped a ride and made a buck to boot.

This past winter while dreaming of visiting St. Pierre, I read a book called Rumrunners by J.P. Andrieux. Jean Pierre stated that in the early days "Newfoundlanders would bring over large quantities of herring that would be used by French fishing fleets as bait. Hard pressed for cash, the barter system worked well. They would also bring firewood .... lamb, mussels, clams, knitted goods and the like."

Jean Pierre in Rumrunners went on to say "no one really considered smuggling a crime in those days, ... given the poverty of the time and the needs of Newfoundlanders."

However it was a crime, and in one case presiding Supreme Court Justice, Gordon Easton said an "accused was in essence a product of history and a casualty of geography".

Eventually, in the 1990s, with the loss of tax revenue mounting, the Canadian government cracked down on rumrunning with increased patrols and much higher fines to the point the risks outweighed the proceeds.


Rose Blanche folks have colourful local bootlegging stories of outwitting the RCMP prior to the time of the crackdown. But that was then, and this is now with most folks retired and taking life a little easier. The only boats going between Rose Blanche and St. Pierre are tourist sailboats leap frogging from outport to outport along the south coast heading for St. Johns.


We have our passports in hand, and we're looking forward to visiting France's St. Pierre and hopefully Miquelon. When we get there, we expect to hear some of their rumrunning stories and lore too, but with a French accent.


Our planning and preparations are complete, but as always, it's the unexpected that we're not quite ready for. Please join us on this adventure.

Click the link for the next story in this series - Authentically French