French explorer Samuel de Champlain was right all along -- Annapolis Royal, N.S., is a good place to settle.
According to an international contest endorsed by the United Nations Environment Program, the coastal town, home to 525 people along the shore of southwestern Nova Scotia, is the "most livable" small town in the world for 2004.
The community, the first permanent European settlement in Canada and the first permanent European settlement in North America north of St. Augustine, Fla., was awarded first place in the category of communities with a population of fewer than 10,000 by the International Awards for Livable Communities. CP