Sadly the name was not literal; it seems originally to have referenced St. Ursula.

I have longed to go here ever since I moved to Maine and was watching this Canadian game show and the prize was a trip to St. Pierre and Miquelon. They're still technically part of France, see, so you could go there and then tell everyone you've been to France. Neat-o.

Why do those little specs of land belong to France? Is there something special about them? Fish?

Dunno. I always figured inertia. :)

They were the only posession in North America that France kept after the French and Indian War. You might say they're a consolation prize for second place.

The name "11,000 Virgins" may be more interesting to straight men because it conjures ideas of somehow having the power to do something to decrease the number and thus rename the land. It kind of gives me the shivers, though... I imgaine visiting "The Islands of the 11,000 Angry Nuns". Brrrr.

Yeah, France got their snooty asses kicked in that one. They had to choose between Canada and Guadeloupe, and in choosing to give up Canada they negotiated a token harborage for their Grand Banks fishing fleets. See Treaty of Paris. (This was in the diplomatic phase of her career.) It was like the furious end of a Monopoly game, when broke players sell properties to each other (yes, that's a rule).

France is still in a position to have a share of the "Northwest Passage" when it appears as the water rises. That's why Denmark has been so insistent about their share of Hans Island.

:( But the 11,000 Virgins will all be Ophelias by then.

The Northwest Passage is iced over, not dried up. And it will be international waters, unless Canada prevails. So Denmark is actually helping France in a way.