It may not have a signature skyline, but the city of Quebec boasts rchitecture and culture worthy of its UNESCO World Heritage Site standing, writes Siobhán Long.
Whatever about feeling like a Columbus when trekking the innards of the Brazilian rainforest (or ploughing through the less-travelled bothareens of Sliabh Luachra for that matter), somehow North America would seem to have offered up all her charms in gluttonous proportions over the past few decades. Like Paddy Kavanagh who warned that "through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder", I'd come to feel that Al Gore's much-vaunted information superhighway had delivered much in the way of information but little in the line of surprise.
Quebec changed all that though. Travelling there to sample its winter carnival in February, the last thing I expected was a rollercoaster ride through a city of such supreme cultural and historical significance. What started out as a short interlude aimed at sampling a tincture of French-Canadian music ended up delivering a spirit-shocking, fast-track gallop through a picaresque history of some 400 years that encompassed all the stock components of a good historical drama: victorious underdogs, fierce battles and the canniest politicking this side of a county council meeting.
Quebec (from the Amerindian word Kébec, meaning "place where river becomes narrow") is poised on a promontory overlooking the St Lawrence River, just before it opens into the estuary, and then to the wide Atlantic. Unlike most North American cities, it doesn't trade on the back of a slew of skyscrapers, nor does it bask in the splendour of those seemingly all-consuming economic trade winds. Quebec city may hold the seat of government for the province, but its real treasures are to be found in an embarrassment of historical and architectural riches, the crowning glory of which is the 1985 designation of Old Quebec as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The only walled city north of Mexico, and acknowledged as the cradle of French civilisation in North America, with its original defence system almost entirely preserved, Quebec wears its heritage lightly. Cobblestoned streets, winding passageways and stone houses dating back to the 17th century celebrate the city's European origins with the kind of stylish confidence we've come to associate with la vie Parisienne.
With 95 per cent of Quebec's half million population Francophone, it's a glorious sensation to undertake a sight-seeing expedition, and to discover that English is most definitely the poor relation here. The French Canadians may have lost their second referendum seeking sovereignty in 1995 by a margin of less than 1 per cent, but Francophiles reign supreme here.
Although it has long played second fiddle to Montreal (with her jazz festival and Olympic history), Quebec is now playing catch-up with her neighbour, some 250km west. Its World Heritage Site designation is a formidable achievement as it is the only North American urban centre to be so honoured. The city owes its origins to the pioneering exploits of Frenchman Samuel de Champlain who upon his arrival in 1608, constructed an abitation or dwelling at the foot of Cap Diamant, which he christened "New France" or Nouvelle France. In 1620 a fort was erected at the summit of this escarpment, and the two formed the nucleus around which Quebec city developed.
Much has been made of the city's picaresque history. From the heady days of colonial expansionism in the 17th and 18th centuries, when New France stretched from Eastern Canada all the way down the Eastern United States as far as Louisiana, to the British incursion of 1759, when the British won the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and assumed control of the city, to the failed attempt by the Americans to take control of the city in 1775-76, Quebec has feistily defended its identity and its independence, and although now subsumed within the country we call Canada, it continues to champion its right to retain its French heritage in the face of the ever-advancing onslaught of fast food, easy money and cheap jobs from the south.
Old Quebec or vieux Quebec contains most of the city's history within its walls. The Upper City or Haute Ville accommodates the centre for religious and administrative affairs, with its numerous government buildings and fine churches, while the Lower City or Basse Ville was the city's business centre.
History is evident everywhere in Quebec architecture: from the Mansard roofs of the old city to the stately and imposing shadow of Chateau Frontenac, built in 1893, the former home of the Comte de Frontenac, governor of Nouvelle France.
UNESCO defines heritage as "our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations", and Quebec's listing as a world heritage site is wholly dependent on the protection of cultural properties "deemed (by UNESCO) to be of outstanding universal value". It is Quebec's large number of ancient buildings of monumental importance which sets the city apart from many other urban centres whose cultural heritage is deemed too disparate to warrant UNESCO's elite listing. The onus for conservation of its heritage and its status is firmly placed in the hands of the city, with a skeleton World Heritage Fund available only in cases where there is deemed to be a clear and present danger of a site's natural resources being eroded or destroyed.
According to Patrick McSweeney, a Corkonian, amateur historian and Quebec resident, the Québecois view their heritage not so much as a tourism bauble, but as a living, breathing part of their everyday life. Medieval culture is a thriving preoccupation in the city and its hinterland as evidenced by the chosen pastimes of many of its citizens.
"There are many clubs and groups in which people dress up, hold banquets, play music and fence", says McSweeney. "My first encounter with all this happened on the Plains of Abraham. I came across a half dozen bearded, long-haired, kilt-wearing, claymore-wielding lunatics. They appeared to be re-enacting a Scottish battle, hacking away with swords, mace and shields. They were not actors, but they were well co-ordinated (as you could tell by the almost total absence of blood). The backdrop to this was the city wall, with about 100 onlookers sitting on it looking down on the Franco-Caledonian gladiators. Two cops walked by and didn't give the whole scene a second look."
Quebec is a city that delivers much more than it promises. Unencumbered by the easy recognition factor that an Eiffel Tower or a Statue of Liberty bestows upon a cityscape, its architectural, historical and linguistic charms are nonetheless well worth savouring, and the beauty of it is that they are dependent on neither weather nor wallet to shine at their best. With preparations already under way for its 400th birthday celebrations on July 3rd, 2008, the city is intent on keeping its historical and cultural heritage firmly in the eye of its residents and visitors.
Further details of the city's planned commemorative events can be found at www.quebec400.qc.ca