Quebec City, Canada is certainly most European destination in North America. Its convenient proximity to the much of the US east coast is almost as surprising as the fact that so few Americans are clued in to what a great experience awaits them on the St. Lawrence River. This is a place you don't expect to find in North America. Old Quebec is set out on terraces of land shelved up from the wide, blue river. It has ramparts and stone arches. The streets are cobblestone and redolent of some delicious but vaguely unfamiliar cooking. As you walk through town the air rings with church bells on the hour and the sound is spiced with the vowels of a romance language.

Quebec City is an astounding travel find. Perched one of the most beautiful riverside settings in North America, Quebec is the only walled city in Canada or the United States. It is four centuries old but so beautifully preserved that UNESCO designated Quebec a World Heritage Site in 1985. With great proximity and an ever-favorable monitary exchange rate, this dramatic, French-speaking destination offers a quick, inexpensive trip from the US that feels like a European vacation.

The real point of this essay is to get you to Quebec City. In 1535 Jacques Cartier discovered the site of Quebec City along the St. Lawrence River. In 1608 Samuel de Champlain founded New France in this area, which remained in French control until the British captured it during a half-hour battle on September 13, 1759. Despite British the victory, and 200 years of subsequent British control, almost the entire half million native Quebec City inhabitants claim French as their native tongue.

Quebec has the feel of a rugged outpost city, and the feel of a civilized city of refuge, a seat of old-world culture, and an epicurean capital. The 19th-century, Louis XIV style Parliament Buildings are the home of the National Assembly of 125 province representatives. Statues adorn the Parliament grounds that are as much a site of sober governmental deliberation as they are the location for regional student demonstration and dissent, mostly regarding the issue of Quebec?s repeatedly proposed succession from the rest of Canada. During a Canada Day demonstration a several years ago students hurling cobblestones broke many of the Parliament Building windows, yet a week later the students were gone, and steady handed artisans replaced the glass panes. The poor Parliament buildings - as recent as January 2004 students paint bombed it with yellow dye. But don't miss your chance - "door three" of the front Parliament entrance admits you during most weekdays to a public restaurant that allows a view of the inside of the building.

Just as the local French speech is skewed with a Canadian influence, the local cuisine is largely French, with a play on indigenous ingredients like maple syrup, wild berries and caribou steak. Like a princely Mediterranean coastal town, Quebec is set out in terraces overlooking the water. Above the city is La Citadelle, a star-shaped fortress inherited from the French and improved by the British to protect the port from re-encroachments by the French. Below the city at the level of the St. Lawrence River is the old trading quarter of Lower Town that has been revitalized into a vibrant arts, hotel, shopping and restaurant district, one main thoroughfare of which is Rue du Petit-Champlain. Medium in altitude between La Citadelle and the Lower Town is the Upper Town, surrounded by thick stone walls and crowned by the centerpiece of a romantic and gravity-defying luxury hotel, the Chateau Frontenac. The turreted, brick and copper-green Chateau Frontenac is the most memorable landmark in a city with the ingredients for a rich supply of travel memories.