Podcast: Quebec City

Perched on a promontory overlooking the St. Lawrence River, Quebec City was settled by the French in the 17th century and has tenderly preserved its distinct provincial feel despite years of British and Anglophile Canadian sway. The relentlessly charming Old City is marked by slant-roofed granite houses, narrow lanes, churches, monuments, and parks.

Its historic fortified walls, the continent’s only ones north of Mexico, have earned Quebec City a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. Ninety-five percent of Quebecois speak French, and they blend a sophisticated sensibility with a hearty frontier attitude, evinced in the huge, rowdy carnival mounted each frigid February. Museums and cultural centers nod to the region’s Huron, Iroquois and Inuit heritage; the sleepy, farm-filled Island of Orleans makes for an idyllic afternoon jaunt.