Home » Trending » May 8 – Fête de la Victoire in St. Pierre & Miquelon

May 8 – Fête de la Victoire in St. Pierre & Miquelon

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nPostednon May 8, 2016

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nYounmay not need to know French to realize that this holiday is aboutn“Victory” – specifically, World War II Victory in France andnother nations.

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nButndo those “other nations” include St. Pierre and Miquelon? Howncome I’ve never heard of them?

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nActually,nSt. Pierre and Miquelon are the two inhabited islands in annarchipelago of eight islands. The islands are located in the NorthnAtlantic, a bit southwest of Newfoundland, and they are not annindependent nation but rather a self-governing territory belonging tonFrance.

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nTherenare only about six thousand people living on the two islands,ncombined. So that probably explains why I’ve never heard of them—thentwo islands, counted together, aren’t much bigger population-wisenthan my high school! n

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nSo,nplace-that-I-just-learned-existed, wow me. What’s so special aboutnSt. Pierre and Miquelon?

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  • nThen houses and buildings are colorful! 

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nLike, really colorful!

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nI read that, backn in the day when the islands were richer because of the cod-fishingn industry, the buildings were dim shades of brown and gray. It’s onlyn since the 1960s that people began using bright colors.

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  • nThen flag is complicated and…well, frankly, busy!

    The flags ofn the regions of Basque, Breton, and Normandy march down the hoistn (the side of the flag nearest the pole), because many of then inhabitants of the island came from those French locales. The bluen sea and yellow ship that fill the rest of the flag are based on St.n Pierre and Miquelon’s coat of arms. The ship is supposed to be then Grande Hermine, the ship that brought Jacques Cartier to then islands in 1536.

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  • Thisn collectivity of islands is the last bit of New France that is stilln controlled by France. At one time France controlled a wide swath ofn what is now Canada and the United States:
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nNow it’s down to this:

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  • Evenn though St. Pierre and Miquelon is about 2,650 miles away from Francen – and much, much closer to Newfoundland, Canada – then inhabitants have regular old European Union passports, they use then euro for money, they speak French that is close to that spoken inn Paris (rather than French Canadian), and the students tend to go ton university in far-away France rather than nearby Canada.
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nAlsonon this date:
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nMother’s Day in the U.S.

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nRed Cross and Red Crescent Dayn 


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nNaturalistnSir David Attenborough’s birthday

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nFurrynDance in Helston, England

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nCigarnmogul and theater patron Oscar Hammerstein’s birthday

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nEducatornand writer Henry Baker’s birthday

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nPlannahead:

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Checknout my Pinterest boards for:

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  • nMayn holidays 

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  • nMayn birthdays 

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  • nHistoricaln anniversaries in May

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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:

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  • nJunen holidays

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  • nJunen birthdays

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  • nHistoricaln anniversaries in June

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