In this post my photos are concentrated on the infrastructural and administrative features that always arouse my curiosity during my travels: international mailboxes, licence plates, flags and street signs.
The only mailbox I found on St. Pierre, aside from the slots at the main post office
The mail slots are outside the post office, for dropping off mail especially when the office is closed. The plaques above the slots are extremely hard to read, even when standing directly in front of them. I blasted the light when preparing these photos to try to bring out the text. I wonder if the text wore off by the elements. Your postcards went into the one saying Autres Destinations, naturally. It cost 1,96€ to mail postcards internationally, whether to Canada, Australia or Finland. I used this stamp:
Licence plates on the island have the EU flag and F abbreviation. They all start with SPM and then are followed by a number of one, two or three digits and then a letter. I saw no letters after K, which, judging by the cars and the pristine condition of the K plates, must indicate that they are the newest ones. I wondered why there were no four-digit numbers as I rarely saw anything higher than in the 900’s. There are a few exceptions to this where I saw such plates, but they didn’t have a terminating letter. These must be for special circumstances. I also saw some really old plates without the EU indicator.
I figured out that once a numerical series reaches 999, then it starts all over again at 1 and with a new terminating letter. Thus SPM 999 F is followed by SPM 1 G and SPM 2 G:
These two cars were identical models and parked next to each other. When the 999 F series ended, it resumed at 1 G.
With such a small island it was fun to do some plate spotting, trying to find the lowest numbers. I saw SPM 1 B on Sunday and then SPM 1 F drove past the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre yet couldn’t take a photo of it in time. SPM 6 G was seen on the way to the airport. As I was photographing this, what should happen but SPM 4 H drove by! Small island indeed as I found it parked the next day and took its picture (above).
Some plates were yellow, and I noticed that this colour applied to older plates such as those in the F series. I cannot be sure that all plates from A through F were yellow. I never even saw an A plate.
The first plate I photographed, seen on the ferry coming over
An old plate I saw on our walk to the airport
During our time on the island I only saw one car from Newfoundland and Labrador and one from Quebec. Canadian tourists do not bring their cars over. I only saw SPM plates on the ferry trips there and back.
The flag of St. Pierre and Miquelon flapping in a strong wind at the harbour. The other flags depicted at the hoist represent the founding settlers of the islands: Basque, Breton and Norman. I saw individual flags from Euskal Herria and Normandie all over the islands yet do not recall seeing an individual flag from Breizh.
Island crest seen inside the Super U supermarket
Corner of Rue des Basques and Rue du 11 Novembre, near our hotel
Mark is consulting a map along the Rue Abbé Pierre Gervain. The stop signs, by the way, all say STOP.
Welcome sign outside Francoforum
One Response
Good shots of the plates. Good thing Mark caught in some to add some interest!! Just kidding. It is unique to such low numbers on those plates but it makes sense in such a tiny place in the world.
P