Creating memories...one vacation at a time!

This guillotine was the only one used in the Americas and was only used once on August 24, 1889.   A man was sentenced to death and the island didn't have a guillotine so one had to be shipped from Martinique.  It was in bad condition and barely worked but it got the job done.  Afterwards it was retired and never used again. 

Early morning photo of downtown Saint Pierre.  Saint Pierre is the capitol of the islands and has a populaton of around 6,500 who are descendants of Basque, Breton, Normandy and other french regions.   During Prohibition, Saint Pierre & Miquelon became important for alcohol smuggling.  Distillers from Canada warehoused their liquor on the islands.    The islanders repackaged it and it was smuggled into the United States and the islands became quite prosperous because of the taxes that were generated by the sales of alcohol to the U.S.    The wooden boxes that arrived into Saint Pierre were used for building materials for their homes so Steve said that you still see the wood with the markings still on them with the names of the distilleries!   Recycling at its finest!