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The Grand-Pré landscape [Our heritage]

The Grand-Pré Landscape [World Heritage #3]

Published on 30 March 2015 - Updated 15 April 2015
Cet article date d'il y a plus de 9 ans

International cooperation

Located in the Minas Bay in Nova Scotia (Canada), the Grand-Pré Marsh and its archaeological sites were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2012. They make up a cultural landscape bearing witness to the development of farmland reclamation on the part of the Acadians in the 17th century, in a coastal region with some of the world’s strongest tides – work carried on today by the area’s planters and inhabitants.

In 2000, the Loire Valley was inscribed on the World Heritage List – an inventory reflecting the richness and diversity of the planet’s cultural and natural heritage. This year, 15 years later, Mission Val de Loire extends you a monthly invitation to acquaint yourself with other World Heritage sites, which are also our heritage.

Land reclamation efforts in the area employed the traditional techniques of dikes, aboideaus and drainage networks, along with a community management system still in use. The rich alluvial soils formed in this way enabled continued sustainable farming to develop.

Grand-Pré is also an iconic place of remembrance for the Acadians, whose deportation, beginning in 1755, has become known as the “Grand Dérangement”.

On the web:

Le Paysage de Grand-Pré

Credit: CC by-nc John McCarthy @Flickr

France-Quebec cooperation

Luce Thériault, who is studying Social Development at the University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR), has been an exchange student at the Sociology, Anthropology and Ethnology Department of the Université Catholique de l’Ouest (UCO, Angers) since September 2014. She has joined the Mission Val de Loire team for a 5-week placement (during March and April 2015) under the supervision of Myriam Laidet, Heritage and Territorial Action Officer, and is exploring possibilities of setting up cooperation actions between the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec and the Loire River, focusing on issues involved in World Heritage. Quebec currently has one listed site, the arrondissement historique du Vieux-Québec ( Historic District of Old Quebec ).

Cooperation is already underway through the Maison de Loire in Anjou and the Friends of the Saint Lawrence Valley association, which have signed a partnership agreement on exchange of expertise and know-how regarding their shared mission: promotion of maritime heritage and fluvial landscapes.