Miquelon-Langlade (Municipality, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, France)

Last modified: 2005-06-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: saint-pierre and miquelon | miquelon-langlade | star (yellow) | acadia | bird | fishes: 2 (white) |
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• Presentation of Miquelon-Langlade
• Coat of arms of Miquelon-Langlade

See also:

• Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.
• France: Municipal flags

Presentation of Miquelon-Langlade

The municipality of Miquelon-Langlade is one of the two municipalities composing the territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. It includes the islands of Miquelon (110 sq. km) and Langlade (91 sq. km). Since the XVIIIth century, Miquelon and Langlade are linked by a sandy isthmus including in its northern part a brackish laguna called Grand Barachois. Miquelon and Langlade are also called Grande Miquelon and Petite Miquelon, respectively. A hundred of families (698 inhabitants) live on Miquelon. Langlade is inhabited only in summer, mostly near the sand beach of the Anse du Gouvernement.

Ivan Sache, 6 March 2005

Municipal coat of arms of Miquelon-Langlade

by Ivan Sache

The coat of arms of Miquelon-Langlade was imagined by Joseph Lucas and designed by Michel Borotra in 1984, for the twinning of the municipality with the Madeleine Islands, in Canada.

The chief of the arms is vertically divided blue-white-red, with a yellow star in canton. The chief takes up the flag of Acadia, and recalls the Acadian origin of several inhabitants of Miquelon. They trace their origin to the villages of Beau Bassin (Acadia) and Beau Rivage (on the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick). The Acadian origin of the inhabitants of Saint-Pierre is different, since their ancestors lived in Plaisance, the capital city of the French colony in Newfoundland, moved to Louisbourg (Cap Breton) in 1713, and eventually to Saint-Pierre in 1758.

The main field of the arms is green, symbolizing hope and resolution to live on the island.

The bird, the Miquelon harelde, is locally called kakawit. It was, along with fish, the staple food for the early islanders. The bird holds in its beak a kind of flag made of the vertical stripe of the local flag of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, recalling the origin of most of the islanders, from left to right, Basques, Bretons and Normands.

The point of the arms is blue for the sea, with two cods, the symbol of the (past) wealth of the island.

Source: Unofficial Miquelon-Langlade website, by Gilles Vernouillet

Ivan Sache, 6 March 2005