August 5 - St. Pierre & Miquelon

We got an early start as we had a ferry to catch.  Today was the first day we had overcast skies and showers.  We geared up with our rain gear and headed out.  We rode for about two hours in the rain.  We stayed kinda dry...parts of us got a little soggy.  We stopped in Goobies at a big gas station that has a decent restaurant attached to it. (Newfoundland has some interesting town names!). Had a few hot coffees and changed into drier clothes and felt much better.  The rain stopped while we ate so the rest of the ride went well.  The sun was out by the time we reached the ferry terminal.  Friendly Newfoundland actually has a garage at a separate property to park motorcycles in overnight!  The ferry to St. Pierre is one and a half hours.  It is a newer ferry that is walk on only.  St. Pierre & Miquelon are Islands owned by France, so we went through customs and had our passports stamped.  It was beautiful when we arrived.  It really feels like a different country when you are there.  Most people spoke reasonable English, thank goodness, because my French is terrible!  We stayed at the old Robert Hotel.  It was very modest but it was clean.  We walked around the town and had a nice dinner.  In the morning we explored a bit more, and visited a museum that had a guillotine on display. It also had a lot of information on the history of the islands. They changed ownership 6 times between the English & French because of the abundance of cod in the area.  Now the cod fishery has been shut down but France continues to throw a lot of money at the islands.  Tourism appears to be the main industry now in the summer.

Planters create the walking side of small streets







Enjoyed a local craft beer in the park on the waterfront 


Our hotel



The red boat was our ferry

Yummy French pasteries


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