Social research has shown that people’s representations of climate change can either facilitate climate policies or act as a barrier to successful adaptation. Here, we explore how to integrate people’s perception and representations of their territories, of climate change and adaptation within the adaptation pathways framework, and we present a preliminary application in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, a French oversea territory affected by sea-level rise, erosion and flooding. This study shows that preferred adaptation pathways depend on the challenges of each area. Hard solutions are often preferred, but people tend to slowly accept soft solutions such as relocation. The preliminary results highlight the local need for adaptation : people seem to feel an urgency to act. This study illustrates that people’s perception of adaptation pathways can be use to support decision-making, to avoid dead-locks.