On highway #1
After three nights in St John's of which Sunday under a beating
rain, I left the capital of Newfoundland on June 8th after shopping
at Wal-Mart then at Sobeys for fruit and vegetables. At the time it
way of the outward journey I had taken the waypoint of a wild
campground where there were caravans. I stopped there for a peaceful
night. The sun stays returned, but for how long!
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| bivouac |
Burin
Tuesday June 9 was a driving day to reach the Burin Peninsula. The road
curves in rolling mountains in landscapes of medium mountains bordered
with marshes and ponds. How all the minor roads in Newfoundland the
roadway is degraded by many potholes! The weather was alas been overcast
but without rain & with a temperature oscillating between 8 and 12°C.
The Burin village, approximately 3,000 inhabitants, was a very active
fishing port in first half of the 20th century then it declined. The
entry of the natural port is a narrow as in St John's with a boardwalk
above water along the rock face. The museum is housed in the old
building of the bank Nova Scotia. On two stages it recalls the life of
the inhabitants by exhibiting objects of their everyday life. A rogue's
gallery accompanies the visitor in the staircases.
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| What is it? |
Landscape |
Museum
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| The Harbourg |
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| Boardwalk |
Bivouac |
Burin Peninsula, road #220
On Wednesday morning I traversed the southern road of the Burin
peninsula. The landscapes are a quasi desert moor swept by the
marine winds. I expected to see sheep feeding in the salt meadow
lambs, well not. It is Irish who colonized Newfoundland and not
Welsh. While driving I stopped at lookouts to read the
interpretative panels. Thus I met Al Capone who took refuge here as
well as in St Pierre as we will see it. A detour led me to the
Fortune Head lightstation where I met inhabitants of Quebec seen in
St John's at the Signal Hill. With the agreement of the light keeper
I bivouacked on the spot in this enchanter and peaceful place
vis-a-vis in the Island of Miquelon.
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| Landscape |
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| Landscape |
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| Al Capone |
Fortune Head Ecological Reserve & Lightstation
Grand Bank
On Thursday morning I crossed Fortune, to go on it does not have
nothing there to see off season. In Grand Bank 6 km further
Provincial Seamen's Museum are heteroclite odds and ends of objects
without much interest, at present time, but in a few million years
ethnologists in evil of copies will make their honey of it while
conjecturing learnedly. Back towards Fortune to take the ferry
tomorrow, I stopped on the rest area of Fortuna kiosk, always
vis-a-vis the sea. It is one of the privileges of the island of
Newfoundland, the roads skirt either the Gulf of St Lawrence to the
west or the Atlantic to the east and the south.
Fortune
St Pierre Ferry Office opened on Friday, June 12 at 10:00. By paying
to my reservation I took a carpark for two days in order not to
leave my truck in street. Then I waited for 13:30 so that a person
leads me to the carpark outside the city. The ferry arrived around
14:00. It is a catamaran for passengers only. The sea was dismounted
(!) but not rolling only one light pitching.
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| Fortune harbour |
St Pierre
Of course on arrival immigration and customs control the passports,
for French it is good child. The Square of the General de Gaulle
triumphantly occupies the seaside with the declaration of June 18th,
1940. At the first access the town of St Pierre is French
undoubtedly though houses are Newfoundland construction.
The reading since many year of the Lonely Planet guidebooks had
accustomed me to the enormous panegyrics of which I was wary
before making a detour to see a banality. The introduction to the
two pages devoted to St-Pierre and Miquelon made me note an old
well-worn stereotype used by the auteure Karla Zimmermann: “… The
islands of St-Pierre and Miquelon aren't just Frenchlike with to
their berets, baguette and Bordeaux, there are France, governed and
financed by the tricolore…” Shameless soliciting of the Anglo-Saxon
reader.
I strolled in streets of the city while looking for French with a
beret, a baguette under his arm and his basket with a liter of red
wine; well not I did not find anyone. The gente Karla Zimmermann
obviously never put her feet at St Pierre and due like much to
Anglo-Saxon she does not practice any foreign language; too much
difficult to learn. The islands St Pierre and Miquelon have the
statute of community of overseas. For more information read
Wikipedia. I was during two days at the hotel Jacques Cartier.
L'Arche museum
On Saturday, June 13 I visited the L'Arche museum: History along the
city. It tells its history since its origins until our days with
pictures, paints of time and objects carrying direction sweeping the
constraints of fishing and its decline as well as the economic boom
at the time of the Prohibition of alcohol in the USA. Then the
revival in the 20th century with the financial aid of the
metropolis! I then desired to visit the Héritage Museum, closed for
the season. I always strolled in the streets looking for the French
describes by Lonely Planet. I met a electrician craftsman and his
daughter holding the shop. It was a very spiritual moment. Indeed
during the conversation I pointed out to my interlocutor that more
than 90% of the population in St Pierre et Miquelon were remunerated
by the French state. With much of humor he tells me: “But it is
normal, the St Pierre inhabitants are as the whale a species endangered.
They should be protected!”
I lunched at the restaurant of sublime foie gras and a succulent lobster.
Alas while leaving a downpour flooded the city. I went to the Point aux
Canons then I returned to the hotel to devote me to administrative work.
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| At the time of prohibition in the USA |
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| Historical chronology of St Pierre and Miquelon |
Promenade dans St Pierre
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| The cathedral |
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| Lighthouse of la Pointe aux Canons |
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| Plate of St Pierre et Miquelon |
Celebrates sailors and procession in the city
On Sunday, June 14 was the seamen's festival with a great mass at
the cathedral followed by a procession until the port and blessing
of the ships. Of course all the constitutional bodies were present
of which the prefect and the director of the marine business as well
as the deputy and the president of the community of overseas. The
cathedral was black with people whose majority communicated.
Fortunately the sun was present and the families followed the
procession, me too. I returned to the hotel to expect the departure
of the ferry Le Cabestan at 13:30 for a 50 minutes crossing. Back to
Fortune I should fill the entry card in Canada and answer the usual
questions. I remained in the port to publish these lines before
bivouacking again at the kiosk Fortuna.
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| Grande messe à la cathédrale |
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| Le préfet |
Le directeur des affaires maritimes |
