The juxtaposition of a dune belt, a coastal rear marsh and a very vast set of moors make the country of Saint-Malo a privileged area of the coast. By crossing the maps, the appearance of the corsair city was considerably transformed between its foundation and the 20th century. However, its spatial logic remains in such a way that it is possible to see an apparent analogy with the city of Boston.
Emerald Coast and Massachusetts Bay, one of the largest bays in the Atlantic Ocean, are rarely the subject of comparative studies. However, these two territories have a history but also a future to share. Like Saint-Malo, the port of Boston exported lumber, flour, whale oil, meat and fish. The rich Musée des Terre-Neuvas in Saint-Malo is worth a visit in many respects. In addition, Boston merchants returned from the West Indies with sugar, rum, molasses and tafia. In the 18th century, tafia was one of the ingredients served in the English Royal Navy, as a pick-me-up (a brandy made from sugar cane). Boston has long benefited from a very favorable location on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean: closer to Western Europe than its rival New York, it developed its maritime traffic and its industry until the 19th century. Massachusetts Bay provided deep-water shelter for ships, and its peninsular site gave it a natural defence. The 17th century city was spread over the Shawmut peninsula, connected to the mainland by an isthmus. To the west stretched marshes invaded by the tide: nowadays, this part corresponds to the district of Back Bay. The center of colonial Boston was around the Old State House. The physiognomy of the city can therefore seem very similar to that of Saint-Malo.
A Boston Emerald necklace, a green star for Saint-Malo?
The Emerald Necklace consists of a 1,100-acre (4.5 km2; 450 ha) chain of parks connected by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and takes its name from the way the planned chain appears to hang from the “neck” of the Boston Peninsula. In 1989, the Emerald Necklace was designated a Boston landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission. The Collar includes half the area of Boston City Park, Brookline City Park, and park walks and approaches under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. More than 300,000 people live in its watershed. Cycle paths have also been laid out along the route. By taking into account the great diversity of the districts from Saint-Servan to Paramé, an imaginary herbarium might highlight the heritage of greenery that make up the green spaces of the parks and gardens of Saint-Malo. A green star would link large natural corridors, valleys and gardens converging on the corsair city. Eventually, it would be possible to walk from garden to garden: landscaped, maritime, food gardens – in the continuity of the current gourmet resorts – to reach the Parc de la Briantais or the Parc de Port-Breton in Dinard. In short, a landscaping program quite close to the Emerald Necklace deployed by the city of Boston.
Saint-Malo, a global high-tech R&D center like Boston on the east coast of the United States?
The high concentration of higher education and research institutions explains Boston’s nickname, the “Athens of America”. The creative fabric of local SMEs combined with the ecosystem of research and higher education on the Emerald Coast have significant levers of influence and regional attractiveness for Brittany. These two locomotives can attract leading international manufacturers and encourage them to take root in Brittany in technologies of the future. All this while combining local industrial chains with cooperative research and development centres. This system of cooperation for research, co-creation and development will help lead Brittany into the new blue ocean of industrial development.
Kevin Lognoné
Photo credit: DR
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