The busy offices of Quebec 2002 are located in a modern brick and glass government building in a complex just beyond the 400-year-old stone fortress protecting Vieux Quebec, the picturesque old city.
Even without the security of the gated walls, the Quebec Olympic bid committee is waging an aggressive campaign for the 2002 Winter Games against competitors Salt Lake City; Ostersund, Sweden; and Sion, Switzerland.This is the first Olympic bid for the capital of Canada's only French-speaking province, but Quebecois, as residents of the region call themselves, are fighting to win.
They're used to struggling, beginning when the French settled Quebec in the mid-1600s. The fortress, constructed on the cliffs above the riverbank settlement to guard against Indian attacks, was not enough to save the city from the British 100 years later.
Ever since that fateful battle on the Plains of Abraham, a farmer's field that the bid committee hopes to use for the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, residents have been striving to maintain their French identity.
Here, bright red stop signs order cars to "Arrent." Newspapers, radio and television stations are in French. Entertainment, from movies to songs to TV sitcoms, are produced in French for the 6 million province residents.
The finest restaurants in a city with a reputation for gastronomical delights feature French cuisine and state liquor stores stow French vintages in their wine cellars.
Speak English here and you are labeled an "Anglophone." Only about 4 percent of the Quebec-area residents speak English as their primary language and only about 30 percent speak it at all.
Nearly everyone in Quebec belongs to the Catholic Church, although there are small Jewish and Protestant communities. The Basilica of Notre-Dame stands across town square from city hall.
Bookstores offer aisles of travel guides to France and, surprisingly, to Florida. Fort Lauderdale is the winter home to thousands of Quebecois, where their cultural differences have sometimes made them the target of ridicule.
The government is the largest employer in Quebec. The tallest skyscraper in the provincial capital, located next to the building where the bid committee has offices, employs some 4,000 government workers.
Quebec entered the Olympic battle shortly after Salt Lake City lost the 1998 Winter Games to Nagano, Japan. With the 1992 and 1994 Winter Games in Europe, backers calculated the Games would return to North America in 2002.
No matter that Salt Lake City, considered the strongest candidate for the 1998 Winter Games, was bidding again. Or that Calgary, host of the 1988 Winter Games, also wanted to represent Canada in the international competition.
Armed with the support of community leaders, hundreds of volunteers and a paid staff that has grown to some 20 employees, the Quebec bid committee has positioned itself right behind Salt Lake City.
Although they've been criticized for temperatures that are too cold and mountains that are too small, Quebec appears to have vanquished Sion, a village in the Swiss Alps, and even three-time bidder Ostersund.
The remaining challenger is Salt Lake City, which has always been considered the front-runner. The International Olympic Committee will name the site of the 2002 Winter Games in June.
"I don't know who is going to win. But we are working very, very hard at it," Quebec Mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier said. "You probably realize we are trying to run as fast as possible."
There have been stumbles. The city had a terrible time finding a downhill course long enough to meet International Ski Federation standards. None of the area mountains was high enough for the course.
One proposed solution was to extend the course's finish line onto a barge in the St. Lawrence River, which narrows in the city and then widens beside ski areas near the Atlantic Ocean.
Bid committee officials admit they were stung by the public's negative reaction. "It was a real storm," bid committee President Rene Paquet said. Support for the bid dropped from more than 70 percent to below 60 percent.
Now the bid committee wants to build a new course by adding about 245 feet of dirt excavated from a nearby lake used for making artificial snow, then topping the newly raised mountain top with an 80-foot tower.
The course has received the necessary ski federation approval and the apparent endorsement of Prince Albert of Monaco, an IOC member who visited the site during a tour of Quebec last week.
And so far, there seems to be no opposition to enhancing the mountain at Le Massif. The resort, which prides itself on preserving the mountains' natural beauty, is 62 miles from Quebec in the neighboring Charlevoix region.
The bid suffered another setback last year when the mayor of suburban Sainte-Foy attempted to rally opposition for a referendum election on spending tax money for the Olympics.
Sainte-Foy Mayor Andree Boucher was not able to muster enough support for a referendum but gathered some 40,000 signatures last May from area residents against increasing taxes to pay for the Olympics.
Even so, the Communaute urbaine de Quebec, the association of 13 area municipalities, voted to contribute $1 million to the bid. Half of the $12 million bid budget is coming from government.
"It is not easy to have influence," Boucher said. "The establishment is against my opinion." She said she will continue to speak up for what she believes is the majority view of Quebecois.
The bid committee, which has seen support rebound to 70 percent, thinks Boucher's concerns have been addressed. "We knew we had to do this with great care, and we had to reassure the public," bid treasurer Sheila Fraser said.
Public hearings were held on the nearly $600 million budget proposed for the 2002 Winter Games, which includes pledges of $200 million from local and national governments.
Panels of experts, ranging from engineers to government ministers to the Canadian Mounties checked and rechecked estimates for building facilities and services such as security, Fraser said.
No one wants a repeat of the financially disastrous 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. Taxpayers spent more than $1 billion for a stadium that was supposed to cost no more than $200 million.
The Quebec bid commitment promises to stay out of the red. "We will not spend a cent of money if we do not have it in the bank," Fraser, a partner in a major accounting firm, said. "There will be no deficits."
Other problems linger. The separationist movement in the province, lead by Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau, is pushing for a referendum this summer to see if voters want to secede from Canada.
Paquet said the issue may never be settled. "I am 55 years old and this has been discussed since I was in the fifth grade," the bid committee president said.
Although Canadian IOC member Dick Pound suggested the separation talk was hurting Quebec's bid, Paquet said most IOC members see it as merely part of the democratic process.
Besides, bid officials said, the provincial government now headed by the separationist party has promised to pick up the federal government's share of Olympic costs if Quebec votes for independence.
As the Quebec mayor said, the bid committee has worked hard minimizing these problems and maximizing the charm of Quebec, this most European of North American cities.
In the summer, boats cruise the river, and artists fill small side streets locals like to compare to the Montmartre district of Paris. Sidewalk cafes along the Grande-Allee also invite comparisons with the City of Light.
But in winter, streets too narrow to plow fill with snow, as do the cafe patios. The main attraction is snow, both on the ski slopes and in the city during February's Carnaval D'Hiver, the annual 10-day winter carnival.
The carnival, headed by Le Bonhomme, a cheery red-capped snowman character, is the largest wintertime tourist attraction. Participants drink "Caribous," a mix of whiskey and red wine, and admire ice and snow sculptures.
The ski resorts mostly attract area residents, but some, like Stoneham and Mont Sainte Anne, are going after American and European skiers. Both resorts would host Olympic skiing if the Games come to Quebec.
Slot machines and other gambling is about 90 minutes away from Quebec City, in the Casino de Charlevoix, just past Le Massif, another proposed Olympic venue.
Visiting IOC members are literally treated like royalty here, with rooms in the Chateau Frontenac, a 102-year-old castle-like hotel that has hosted Queen Elizabeth as well as a World War II meeting between then England Prime Minister Winston Churchill and then United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Despite the sometimes fairy-tale image conjured up by the castle, fortress and other unique landmarks, Quebec bid officials take a pragmatic approach to their quest for victory.
"We realized at the beginning we were in a very serious project," Paquet said. "When you're bidding for the Olympics, you're trying to get a major contract," similar, say, to bidding to build for a $1 billion dam.
"If you can't demonstrate at the bid stage you can do it in a very professional and very businesslike way, you're out of business," he said. And this bid committee expects still to be open after June.