Travel Miquelon Coat of Arms The ancestors of most of the people buried in the cemetery came from the Basque Country, Brittany and Normandy. “My surname Etcheberry is Basque,” said Roger. We later noted a boat namedLa Bretagne in the harbour. The Coat of Arms of Miquelon displays fish in the sea and the flags of the three regions, as well as the Acadian flag, which features a yellow star set on the French Tricolour flag. Acadians settled in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon between 1763 and 1814. Outside Notre-Dame des Ardilliers Church, we viewed the Acadian flag and the Grand Dérangement monument commemorating Britain’s 1755 deportation of nearly 10,000 Acadians from Nova Scotia. The black-and-white bird onMiquelon’s Coat of Arms is a long-tailed duck, known locally as the kakawi. Along with fish, it sustained the first inhabitants. Roger, a self-taught naturalist, does annual bird counts on the islands. The unspoiled landscapes of Miquelon-Langlade are havens for birds and wildlife. “You can see thousands of ducks and shorebirds here,” said Roger. “From April to the fall, harbour and grey seals haul out on the sandbanks of the Grand Barachois, a saltwater lagoon on the south end of Miquelon.” Several hiking trails and guided eco-walks offer opportunities to birdwatch and view wildlife, including white-tailed deer. Many residents of Saint-Pierre spend their five weeks of paid vacation in summer homes onMiquelon-Langlade. They fish, walk along the beach and pick wild strawberries and bakeapples (cloudberries) to make delicious jams and tarts. Miquelon Coat of Arms with flags of the Basques, Bretons, Normands & Acadians as well as the fish and kakawi that sustained the first inhabitants Acadian flag and Grand Dérangement monument outside Miquelon’s Notre-Dame des Ardilliers Church Boat named La Bretagne 22 | www.snowbirds.org
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzMzNzMx