Sunday, May 17, 2009

Cars of St. Pierre and Miquelon


While leafing through the Newfoundland chapter of my Lonely Planet Canada, I found a couple of islands belonging to France. Saint Pierre and Miquelon, population 6,125, consists of mostly Basque and Breton fishermen. It has an interesting history. During WWII, the governor was a Vichy sympathizer and Canada considered invading it because it was rumored to be helping German U-boats.

The above picture, found on flickr, captures the Territorial Collectivity's geographic location perfectly. It's taken outside the treasury building (the people use Euros). That all the vehicles in the picture are blue may be a coincidence, but they may also be official government cars. All the license plates say SPM, for Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

On the left is a Dodge truck, signifying the U.S. influence in the NAFTA countries. The middle car is a Renault Express, signifying that even though this is a remote North Atlantic outpost, France still reigns supreme. To the right is a Pontiac Sunrunner, which is a Canadian version of the Geo/Chevy Tracker.

CKY

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

your an idiot. the cars dont signify these things at all. the reason there is a dodge truck on the island is that residents of st.pierre often visit newfoundland to purchase cars, as we dont sell Citrons, renaults, fiats and other great european cars here it is difficult for them to get them. That is why there is a Dodge and a ponatiac in the photo. also, all cars in st.pierre have lisence plates that start with SPM

Anonymous said...

Citroen’s and Peugeot’s are splendid cars,500,000km with no problems,driven in nb.canada