Yeah, I think that was brought to my attention during a French election at some point.

Where are you from that you thought geography teachers should teach that? (Or where you even have a class called 'Geography'?

And the first "off" in the title should be "of". Sorry about my spelling guys. It's a pet peeve of mine and then I go and do something like that.

I live in Ontario, Canada. We had to take geography in grades 9 and 10. I'm 25 now so maybe I just forget...lol

There are still quite a number of island groups around the world that are nominally controlled by the former empires.

There's an island group off the coast of France that's mainly under control of the former British Empire

I think it is mostly shocking because it is so close to home, relatively speaking.

I can't see why it is "shocking".

Anyone else ever get the feeling that as soon as the word 'France' appears in a thread that an alarm goes off in Chamois's house and the defenses are up?

Lol. It's shocking because I just found out that there is a territory of another country right off our Atlantic coast that I didn't know about.

That, and the fact that France was able to hold on to anything on this side of the Atlantic because they are all a bunch of surrender monkeys.

hahaha, yeah probably.

And yes even though it does feel a bit odd there are quite a few little tiny islands/states that the 19th century empire kept control over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana

There's a decent size state in South America that is still predominantly governed by France.

But I knew about that one. I know there are still remnants of old empires all around the world. This is one I was completely unaware of.

the "yeah probably" was @ Dingle's post.

"In the late 1950s De Gaulle offered all French colonies political and financial independence. Saint Pierre and Miquelon chose to remain part of France."

Damn you cannot criticize that we own some part far away from the metroplitan France just because we asked them if they wanted to remain French.

"Damn you cannot criticize that we own some part far away from the metroplitan France just because we asked them if they wanted to remain French. "

I don't recall anyone being critical. Stop being so damn defensive all the time.

You don't that retarded canadian did.

"the fact that France was able to hold on to anything on this side of the Atlantic because they are all a bunch of surrender monkeys. "

That is why he was 'shocked', that such a militarily weak country has colonies. He wasn't saying 'Miquelon deserves to be free - how dare France still be imperialistic!!!' That would be critical.

And I am shocked that such a militarily weak country as Canada own so much lands.

Good comeback Chamois. Very impressive and mature.

Calling the French a bunch of surrender monkeys isn't very kind and mature too.

I'm not sure why it's shocking either. Pretty much everyone in Newfie knows knows about the islands because of the fishing problems a few years back (essentially Canada banned fishing from Newfie fleets in that area because over fishing was killing them all off, but the French carried on regardless). I would have assumed most other Canadians would have know about them for the same reason. Most Yanks will never have heard of them because Yanks just don't care that much about non US geography.

But no, there are lots of islands in the Americas that have stayed with their traditional European powers. Greenland being the most obvious example.

(Newfie voted to become part of Canada, but it a popular local myth that most people wanted to stay British and the vote was rigged to reward Canada for the efforst in WW2. To this day a huge number of locals proudly fly the Union Jack from their flag poles and stand up when God Save The Queen is played... This came as quite a shock to a British tourist like myself as hardly anyone stands up for anthems or flies the flag back home :p)

No, it isn't, you're right. And your 'well he did it first' response was easily predictable

Just lighten up a little Chamois. Why are you so defensive about France all the time?

"Surrender monkeys" is a Simpsons quote. I don't think it was meant with total seriousness.

LOL, yeah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_monkeys

@Octavius : that is right and now, because of that conflict, most the waters arround St-Pierre-et-Miquelon is Canadian Exclusive Economic Zone. So the isles economy is ruined. (As if Canada is lacking of space, they had to reduce the water own by France).

(I know that is a Simpsons quote and i am serriously fed up with it.)

Thank you BigFlax. It appears most people don't have a sense of humour today. The only thing I was shocked about was that I didn't find out about it until recently. That's all. I'm not amazed it exists, I'm not amazed that France owns it. It was a joke. Shocked may have been the wrong word seeing how picky everyone is being with the initial comment.

Chamois, take a chill pill my friend and wash it down with a beautiful glass of French wine.

Yo chamois.... he was uh... you know... joking.

The proper response is go:

"Haha good one. And Canada is nothing but frozen wasteland."

Come on now. If you don't want people to believe the "all Frenchmen are assholes" stereotype, then stop being an asshole lol.

"Yo chamois.... he was uh... you know... joking.

The proper response is go:

"Haha good one. And Canada is nothing but frozen wasteland."

Actually, I believe the correct response is actually, 'Aye, good one you hockey hoser. No eat some bacon and drink some watered down 'beer'.