Aix-en-Provence or Bern?

Only Aix needs a proper outing for a swim. The sea is about 30km away, so it means a drive, or a bus and train via Marseille, to the small pebbly coves of the Côte Bleue, the city beaches or Cassis, where the Mediterranean is warmer in high summer but the coves fill quickly in August.

In Bern, swimming is part of everyday summer life. Locals walk up the Aare from the Marzili baths and drift back on the cold, fast current past the Federal Palace, and the riverside lidos have lawns and pools. The river is for confident swimmers only, and Lake Thun, a short train ride away, offers calmer water.

Aix is clearly the better place to eat. Its daily markets on Place Richelme feed a lunch culture of tapenade, daube, vegetable tians and local rosé, and calissons are on sale all over the centre. The cooking is firmly French and Mediterranean, and the best tables tend to be in the back streets rather than on the Cours Mirabeau.

Bern's food is honest but heavy: the Berner Platte, rösti and fondue served in guildhall rooms and vaulted cellars, with Emmental cheese and very good chocolate as its strengths. The choice is narrower, and a meal out costs considerably more.

The two are well matched as compact, handsome old towns that take two or three unhurried days. Aix's appeal is its townscape, with the plane-shaded Cours Mirabeau, the Mazarin quarter's mansions and fountains on almost every square, and Cézanne's studio, family house and quarries as a thread to follow.

Bern's UNESCO-listed old town of sandstone arcades and the Zytglogge is just as rewarding, and its museums go a little deeper. The Zentrum Paul Klee, the Kunstmuseum and the Einstein material give art and science lovers more to see indoors.

Neither is a going-out town, and anyone after real club nights heads elsewhere, from Aix to Marseille. Aix's evenings are about student crowds drinking on terraces around the Forum des Cardeurs and quiet down outside term time.

Bern does its drinking underground, in cellar bars below the arcades and along Aarbergergasse, with the Reitschule for late, rough-edged parties and riverside bars in summer. It is also very quiet on weeknights.

Both have superb country on the doorstep, but of very different kinds. From Aix it is limestone and sea: the trails of Montagne Sainte-Victoire, coastal walking and kayaking in the Calanques, cycling through the Luberon's vineyards and lavender, and the Gorges du Verdon further on. Summer fire closures and heat push the best of it into spring and autumn, and a car helps.

Bern looks towards the high Alps. The Jungfrau region, with cable cars, mountain hiking and winter skiing, is about an hour away by train, Lake Thun is closer still, and the Gurten and the Aare paths start in town, all reachable without a car.

Both are first-rate bases, and what differs is how you travel and what you see. Aix opens up Roman and Provençal France: Marseille, Avignon's papal palace, Arles, Nîmes and the Pont du Gard, plus hilltop villages such as Gordes and Roussillon that really need a car.

Bern does it all by train. Lucerne, Basel, Zurich, Fribourg, Gruyères, Murten and Lake Geneva's Lavaux terraces are an easy run from the station, so you can leave without a booking or a map.

Bern is noticeably better with children. The bear park, the Dählhölzli zoo along the river, the Natural History Museum's dioramas and the playground at the top of the Gurten funicular fill several days, and trams make getting around simple.

Aix is safe and pleasantly car-free in the centre, with fountains and ice cream, but its sights are mansions and museums, and summer afternoons are hot. Families usually lean on a pool and drive out to La Barben zoo or the coast.

Inside town both are walkable, but beyond the centre Bern is in another league. Its main station sits at the top of the old town, trams and buses share one fare system, and funiculars handle the climb from the river, so a car is never needed.

Aix is a pleasure on foot, but its TGV station is out on the plateau, buses and local trains only really serve Marseille, and the Provençal villages almost require a hired car and a hunt for parking.

Aix makes slightly better browsing. French fashion and shoe boutiques line Rue d'Italie and Rue Fabrot, and the markets add flowers, fabrics and bric-a-brac to the produce. Calissons, santons, olive wood and Marseille soap make distinctive things to take home.

Bern's arcaded streets are tidier but more predictable: Swiss chains, watches and chocolate, with antiques, books and design in the cellar shops further down. Neither offers real luxury shopping.

Aix costs a great deal less than Bern, though it is dear by the standards of southern France. Its expense lies mainly in the scarce central hotels and the overpriced terraces on the Cours Mirabeau, while back-street lunch menus and market picnics keep daily spending reasonable. A hire car is the main extra.

Bern is expensive across the board, from plain guesthouses to a beer on a terrace. The tram and bus pass most hotels give guests, the free bear park and river walks, and supermarket lunches all help, but they only go so far.

Aix has the bigger draw in the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, whose July opera in the Archbishop's Palace courtyard is worth planning a trip around. Ballet Preljocaj at the Pavillon Noir and the Grand Théâtre de Provence keep up a good programme through the year.

Bern offers a solid evening rather than a reason to come: German-language opera and drama at the Stadttheater, its symphony orchestra at the Casino, and new music at the Dampfzentrale. The spring jazz festival and the Gurtenfestival suit those who prefer jazz, rock and pop to opera.

Both are good for slowing down rather than spa-centred stays. Aix has the deeper bathing story: a Roman spa town whose fountains still run warm, with the Thermes Sextius on the site of the ancient baths.

Bern has no such heritage, but it offers a large modern thermal complex on the western edge and quiet Sundays, and the mountain spa hotels of the Bernese Oberland are within easy reach for serious pampering.