The ‘cradle of New France’ and the bastion of French culture in North America today, Quebec City is the most charming city on the continent. Nowhere else is the past so well preserved in an ensemble of 17th- to 19th-century buildings, wrapped tight in the fortifications of the only walled city north of Mexico.

A popular destination for visitors, with its horse-drawn calèches rattling down narrow streets between grey-stone buildings, Old Quebec also won recognition from UNESCO, which declared it a World Heritage Site in 1985.

Located in the eastern portion of massive Canada, the city’s fortunes are largely due to its geography and history. The walled Upper Town sits atop the strategic Cap Diamant, overlooking the spot where the St Lawrence River narrows (known as the kebec to the original Algonquin inhabitants).

The view from the river is dominated by the towering copper-roofed Château Frontenac; the wide wooden boardwalk known as Dufferin Terrace running along in front of it is often the first place visitors head to when they enter the Upper Town.

At the foot of Cap Diamant and linked by a funicular, the Lower Town was the spot where Samuel de Champlain founded the city in 1608, some 73 years after Jacques Cartier was the first European to ‘discover’ the area. Today, the buildings in the Lower Town’s Place Royale have been restored to their original appearance - at a cost of around one million Canadian dollars per house.

Few of the original structures survived the British bombardment of 1759 - a prelude to General Wolfe’s taking of the city from the French, when his troops secretly scaled the bluffs below the Plains of Abraham to the west.

The battle saw the death of both Wolfe and the French general, Montcalm, although the British were able to consolidate their victory. To prevent a future attack from the same route, they constructed the Citadel, an enormous star-shaped fortress and one of the city’s most popular attractions.

With Confederation, Quebec City became the capital of the province of Quebec in 1867. The National Assembly meets in the Hôtel de Parlement, on Parliament Hill, which runs parallel to the Plains of Abraham, separated by the lively Grande Allée.

Tourism and government may be the most visible industries in the city but there are a growing number of high-tech firms. Some industry has also survived from the earliest days when the port was one of the busiest in North America, ferrying furs and later timber and wood pulp to markets overseas.

Although nearly all of the city’s present residents are of French descent (and thus largely Roman Catholic), nearly a third (29%) are bilingual, offering a friendly, warm welcome to visitors in English, as well as French.

Their joie de vivre is infectious and never more so than during the summer festivals, when the whole town seems to be one continuous stage. Summer is worth celebrating as winters tend to be long, cold and snowy.

But the locals compensate by heading to the hills for some of the best skiing on this side of the continent. The highlight of the winter, however, is the Carnaval de Québec - two weeks of frolics in the snow helped along by a bit of warming alcohol and general good spirits during the bleakest part of February.

In 2008, Quebec City will be celebrating its 400th anniversary, and plenty of special events will take place to mark the occasion, making this a great time to visit.