By Andrea Gross

The street is lined with quaint little houses, and a gracefully Gothic Catholic Church dominates the town square. “Bonjour,” says a woman, as she strolls by, a fresh baguette in her mesh bag. I smile, feeling as if I’m in a small French village.

I’m really in southern Texas, indulging in one of my current recession-induced passions: I’m exploring the world without leaving the United States.

To date I’ve “visited” more than 20 countries on four continents, all without getting a single stamp in my passport.

Here are four of the best of my visits:

Texas’ French Hamlet

Castroville, Texas, 25 miles west of San Antonio, was settled in the mid-1840s by folks from the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Like their homeland, this area of Texas boasts fertile farmland tucked between a river and the mountains.

The weather, however, is different – a fact the newcomers soon discovered. They built houses topped with steep, snow-shedding roofs like those in Alsace, not realizing how unnecessary this would be in southern Texas. The Visitors Center distributes a free booklet that details the history of many of these homes, as well as that of the church, schoolhouse, store, saloon and hotel.

No visit to France, whether in Europe or Texas, would be complete without great food. Castroville boasts two French restaurants extraordinaire – La Normandie, which specializes in traditional French cuisine, and The Alsatian, which features “German food with a French flair.”

Contact the Castroville Chamber of Commerce at 800.778.6775 or visit their website.

Colorado’s Tibetan Center

When you’re in the Rockies, 8,000 feet is a mere hill, yet it’s high enough to give a heavenly glow to the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya. This grand example of sacred Buddhist architecture, the largest in North America, presides over the Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, a place where the cultural heritage of Tibet can be admired and celebrated.

Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado

The Great Stupa is as tall as a 10-story building, and if you think outside is inspiring, wait until you go inside. Few visitors fail to be awed. A 20-foot-tall Buddha, gleaming with gold, sits solemnly beneath a ceiling covered with intricate Tibetan paintings. The floors, a mosaic of inlaid granite and quartz, are equally elaborate. A small gift store carries Buddhist prayer flags, brass offering bowls and other Tibetan items.

Contact Shambhala at 888.788.7221 or visit their website.

California’s Russian Enclave

The golden dome of the Holy Virgin Cathedral is visible for nearly a mile in both directions as you drive along San Francisco’s Geary Boulevard, a major thoroughfare linking downtown with the Pacific Ocean. The 10 blocks surrounding Geary have a distinctly Russian feel.

Old women with babushka headscarves and long coats jostle with young teens on skateboards as they walk along the crowded streets, past store windows with signs written in Cyrillic lettering. Shops sell Russian lacquer boxes and matrioshka nesting dolls, restaurants feature traditional borscht (beet soup) and blinis (pancakes), and bakeries are filled with crusty Russian breads and sweet poppy seed cakes.

While the Cathedral is the spiritual heart of the community, the Russian Center is its social center. In addition to a small museum full of artifacts dating back to pre-revolutionary days, it houses a theater and studios for budding folk dancers and gymnasts.

Contact the Russian Center at 415.921.7631 or visit their website.