Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon from space (ASTER) NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory website at NASA has published an amazing photo today of the Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that was taken from space.
As the text accompanying the image explains so well, “The Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing overseas collectivity of France, off the southern coast of Newfoundland. It is the last remaining part of New France in North America to retain French sovereignty; its 6000 residents are French citizens. During the early part of its 500 year history, the island changed ownership numerous times between France and Britain. Only in 1816 were the islands permanently claimed by France, and French settlers came from Brittany, Normandy, and the Basque areas.”
We’re not going to go into analyzing the subtlety used by the author to show that the Basques from that part of the world are from an area of the Basque Country. The truth is that the problem of having a country divided into two was handled elegantly.
Flag of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
But we are going to go into the many, many occasions where we have talked about these islands, where “everything Basque” is an institution, as well as giving us Basques the opportunity to have the only emoji with an Ikurriña that we can find.
We’ve also recalled them when we spoke about how for many, many years, the North Atlantic was “the Sea of the Basques“, and when we brought you the trip our English-language editor, John R. Bopp, took to attend the Basque festival they organize there everything year. Another entry covers when their Eusko Etxea was recognized by the Basque Government, and yet another tells about how the first sports club on the islands, founded in 1902, was given a name that is hugely symbolic to the Basques: Zazpiak Bat.
And we get to talk about the islands again today because, as we said earlier, NASA has published an image taken by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory‘s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) in September 2011.
The photo, taken from 705 km (440 mi) up by the Terra satellite, where ASTER, which has a spatial resolution of 15–90 m (50—300 ft), is installed.
JEL -20/4/2021 – USA
St. Pierre, France
The Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing overseas collectivity of France, off the southern coast of Newfoundland. It is the last remaining part of New France in North America to retain French sovereignty; its 6000 residents are French citizens
