Island-Hopping: A bit of France closer to home They may appear on the map to be a part of Canada. But for more than a century, the tiny islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, located off Newfoundland, passed back and forth between French and British control until, finally, the islands became permanently French. Conor Knighton visits the islands that were originally made wealthy by cod fishing (and later profited off of American Prohibition), and which today are experiencing a tourism boom among Americans seeking an authentic taste of France on the western shores of the Atlantic.