Painted houses
Restored wood.
Keizers — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Keizers — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Keizers — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Keizers — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Keizers — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Keizers — CC BY-SA 4.0
Île aux Marins, «Island of the Sailors», is a small island in front of Saint-Pierre harbour in the French archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada, about 2 km in a straight line east of the town of Saint-Pierre. Until 1931 it was called «Île aux Chiens», Island of the Dogs. It was settled in 1604 and reached nearly 700 people at the height of cod fishing, when fish were dried on its fields of shingle. The last residents left in the 1960s and it became a ghost town, with only a few people staying there between May and November today. The island is about 1.5 km long, flat and grassy, dotted with restored, brightly painted wooden houses, the old church, the Jézéquel house and a former school that is now a museum of island life. Several buildings were listed as protected monuments in 2011, and on its north shore the bow of a ship that ran aground in 1971 still sits. It is a short boat ride from Saint-Pierre in season. The weather is changeable and cool even in summer, so bring a warm layer and a rain jacket, and allow half a day to walk around the island.
Restored wood.
Island life.
On the north shore.
Off Saint-Pierre harbour
By a short boat ride from Saint-Pierre in season.
Only a few people, May to November.
