Flag: St. Pierre & Miquelon

The French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, next to Canada. The yellow ship on a blue field is a sailing ship recalling the explorer Jacques Cartier, who claimed the islands for France in 1536. The three panels stacked along the left edge are the flags of the regions most of the settlers came from: the red, white and green Basque flag (the ikurriña) on top, the white Breton flag with black ermine spots in the middle, and the red Norman flag with two golden lions at the bottom. This is the islands' local flag, flown beside the French tricolour; officially, as part of France, their national flag is the French one.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing French overseas collectivity of about six thousand people, 25 kilometres from the coast of Newfoundland. It is the last piece of France's old North American empire: the islands use the euro, send representatives to the French parliament, and keep their own time zone, half an hour ahead of Newfoundland. For centuries they lived from cod fishing; during US Prohibition in the 1920s they made a fortune as a legal warehouse for liquor that smugglers ran into the United States. Today they draw visitors from Canada curious to see a slice of France without crossing the Atlantic.

What does it mean when someone sends 🇵🇲?

Usually the islands themselves: a trip, a home, or a flag collection. Residents, French expats and travellers use it the way anyone uses their flag, next to holiday photos, hometown pride or a list of countries visited. It also turns up in flag quizzes, where the ship and the striped panels make it one of the trickier ones to name.

The other reading is Basque. There is no emoji for the ikurriña, the Basque national flag, and 🇵🇲 is the only emoji that contains one, even if it is tiny. Spanish and French Basque users sometimes drop it into posts about Basque identity, language or football, often with a wink, because almost nobody else recognises what the little top panel is. If it arrives from a Basque friend with no mention of Canada, that is what it means.