Flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a small French archipelago off the coast of Canada. Its official flag is that of France, but its inhabitants fly another one: blue, with a golden sailing ship and three small flags next to the flagpole. It is not official, but you see it everywhere.

How it came about

The starting point was the coat of arms of the islands, which already brought together the ship and the symbols of the three regions. In the early 1980s an inhabitant of Saint Pierre island, André Paturel, simplified it to turn it into a flag, on the basis of an idea by Jean-Paul Dunan. The flag is usually dated to 1982.

How it has changed

It has not changed since it was created. Nor has its situation: no French law recognises or forbids it.

What it means

Every element recalls where the islands and their people come from:

• Sailing ship

  the Grande Hermine, the ship of the French explorer Jacques Cartier, who reached Saint Pierre in June 1536.

• Blue

  the sky and the sea.

• Ikurriña

  the Basque Country.

• Black ermine spots on white

  Brittany.

• Two golden lions on red

  Normandy.

Most of the inhabitants descend from fishermen who arrived from those three regions of France.

Fun facts

1. The emoji of the Basques

   The ikurriña has no emoji of its own, so many Basques use that of Saint Pierre and Miquelon online, which carries it in the corner.

2. Official without being so

   It flies below the French one in front of the Territorial Council building and even appears on official documents, although no law has ever approved it.

3. A protest with the United States flag

   In 1908, in the middle of an economic crisis, some demonstrators paraded through the capital with the United States flag. The gesture came up for debate in the French Parliament, and the Senate ended up increasing aid to the islands.

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