It is said that an American tourist visiting Quebec City once asked to see the Jewish Aviation Museum.

"The Jewish Aviation Museum?" queried the puzzled tourist guide.

"Yea, you know, the Planes of Abraham." exclaimed the tourist.

The story is no doubt apocryphal, but it underscores the fact that Quebec boasts a different language and culture from the rest of North America.

And vive la difference. Quebec City is the cradle of French civilization in North America. Founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, French soldier, navigator, geographer and explorer, it is the only walled city north of Mexico.

The name Quebec is derived from the Indian word "Kebec," meaning "narrowing of the waters". The city is perched on a 106 meter (350ft) cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence River and is divided into the Upper and Lower town. In colonial times the Upper Town was the domain of the military and the government. The Lower Town encompassed the port and trading district where supplies from Europe were unloaded to be replaced by the rich furs of "New France."

Authentic restoration ensures that today's Lower Town retains the ambience of early New France, including the thick stonewalls, dormer windows, wooden doors and shutters and bright tin roofs. The art galleries, boutiques and quaint alfresco cafes that have replaced the old warehouses give Quebec that uniquely European look unknown in other North American cities.

The heart of the Lower Town was, and still is, Place Royale, named after Louis X1V whose bust stands in the square.

Hard by Place Royale is Quartier Petit-Champlain, the oldest district in North America, dating back to the city's founding in 1608. Originally it was a busy port village with trading posts and elegant residences built of wood, then stone and brick. Towards the end of the 19th century Quartier Petit-Champlain deteriorated. Modern renovation, with strict adherence to authenticity, has again turned the quarter into a quaint riverside village where pedestrians can stroll the narrow streets enjoying the local color. Over 60 craftspeople and artists offer their wares here and visitors can enjoy the native entertainers and musicians while partaking of Quebec's sumptuous French cuisine.

To get to the Upper Town from the Lower Town you can climb the aptly named "Break-neck Stairs" or take a small funicular railway.

Dominating the skyline up top is that majestic symbol of Quebec City, the Chateau Frontenac. The hotel was built in 1893 and its turrets and towers make it look more like a castle. It is on the site of Fort St. Louis, a governor's residence in colonial times, and was named after Comte de Frontenac, an early governor of New France.

From the front of the Chateau Frontenac you can take the Promenade des Gouverneurs, a picturesque boardwalk, round to the famous Plains of Abraham or Battlefields Park. This 95-hectare (235 acres) park was the site of the pivotal battle between General Wolfe and General Montcalm in 1759 that irrevocably sealed the fate of New France as a British colony. The boardwalk itself is suspended 92 meters (280ft) above the St. Lawrence and offers spectacular views of the river and Quebec's busy harbor.

Visitors arriving in Quebec City by car from Montreal are likely to drive down the Grande Allee. The road dates from colonial times when the indigenous people of the Sillery reserve took what was then the longest road in the colony into town to sell their furs. Today the road is lined with restaurants and small hotels all housed in Victorian buildings. It's great fun to stroll this busy street at night reading the menus posted outside the restaurants. The quality of the restaurants in Quebec City is unequalled anywhere in North America, including New York and San Francisco. Meandering down the Grande Allee in the evening one regrets that one can eat only one dinner.

A visit to Quebec would be incomplete without a tour of ile d'Orleans, a 35 kilometer (21 miles) by nine-kilometer (five miles) island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River.

Quebec poet and folksinger, Felix Leclerc, describes the road that circumscribes the island as "quarante-deux milles de choses tranquilles ..." (42 miles of tranquility). The island is certainly a living museum of colonial New France with houses, churches and mills that are centuries old.

Of particular interest in the village of Saint-Jean is the Manoir Mauvide-Genest. Built in 1734 for Mr. Mauvide, surgeon to Louis XV, it is a Norman-style manor and one of the most beautiful rural buildings in the province of Quebec. Today it houses a restaurant on the first floor and a museum on the second.

The bridge connecting the island with the mainland was built in 1935. Prior to this the only contact with the island was by boat in summer and ice-bridge in winter.

From the bridge one gets a superb view of Montmorency Falls on the mainland. With a height of 85 meters (274 ft) it is over 30 meters (100 ft) higher than Niagara Falls. On top of the cliff and to the left of the falls stands the Kent House, once the home of the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria.

The uniqueness of Quebec was summed up by the English writer Rudyard Kipling in a letter home upon visiting the city in 1907. He wrote: "Quebec ... ranks by herself among those Mother-cities of whom none can say, 'This reminds me ….'"

Bruce Burnett, has won four Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold awards for travel journalism.

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