If all the ports in the world...
In the beginning was the sea and the sea was their earth.
European ports are linked in a physical and elemental way. But how to revive this link, how make
it central once again in the life of the Saint-Malo region?
This is the question that Loïc Frémont, director of the Saint-Malo theatre, is trying to answer. His wager is simple:
culture, when it allows for exchange between Europe's harbour regions, can be a vehicle for the local economy and tourism.
Therefore, he decided to launch in 1997 an intercommunal festival titled "If all the ports in the world...", which gives
the world of art and theatre the chance to carry the world of business in its current. It might seem a strange match at first
between these "enemy brothers," but it's a marriage of (good) reason and maybe also of passion.
Thus, every two years the Saint-Malo region celebrates it cultural
engagement with a maritime region - first Cadix, then Dublin and Glasgow, and finally Genoa - which leads
to economic partnerships.
But if the success of this inter-regional event has proved that an encounter, which is often a reunion,
with another culture can result in new economic and tourism-related links, the idea is not to stop there
but to create durable and permanent bonds. The aim is to initiate a network of collaboration at every level between
the various partners of the countries involved in "If all the ports in the world..."
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Its role will be to establish
common projects based on the links created during the events, and to share and exchange the riches which are the
experiences and knowledge of each participant. With the hope, of course, of welcoming new members such as Porto
and Cardiff in the future.
But back to our starting point, the sea. The history of the Saint-Malo region has been firmly anchored here since
the 16th century, with the birth of the navy whose explorers sailed off in search of precious spices and economic
conquests. From that point on, they brought together local people, sailors and entrepreneurs, and sailors from other
countries such as Spain and Portugal - sometimes to the point of making them more familiar than their distant compatriots.
And it's this same link, that of the sea and spices - today revived and refreshed - that five centuries later makes be want
to lend a hand to a cook in Porto...
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