Aix-en-Provence or Monaco?

Neither is a true beach resort, but only Monaco has the sea in town. Aix sits about 30km inland, so a swim means driving, or taking a bus and train, to the pebbly coves of the Cote Bleue, Cassis or the calanques. Many visitors settle for a pool instead.

Monaco's Larvotto is short and groomed, with calm, clear water inside its breakwaters. The coves of Cap d'Ail and the longer beaches of Menton and Nice are a short hop away, and the sea there runs a few degrees warmer in high summer.

Both eat well, but in different ways. Aix is a market town at heart, with produce stalls on Place Richelme every morning and long lunches of daube and tians with local rosé. Calissons come from old confiseries, and there is a sound range of bistros, though little beyond French cooking.

Monaco's strength is the formal dinner. It has an unusual number of starred hotel dining rooms cooking Riviera and Ligurian food, and polished Italian places on the harbour. Its simpler side is barbagiuan and socca from the Condamine market, because cheap casual meals are otherwise scarce.

Aix has more to see and more depth behind it. The Mazarin quarter of 17th- and 18th-century mansions, the fountains of the Cours Mirabeau and a cathedral with a Merovingian baptistery fill two or three unhurried days. So do the Cezanne sites (his studio, the family house and the quarries) and the paintings at the Musee Granet.

Monaco's sights are fewer and more theatrical: the Prince's Palace and its guard ceremony, Grace Kelly's grave in the cathedral, the Oceanographic Museum on its cliff, and the Casino. A day or two covers them, and the setting does more of the work than the collections.

Evenings in Aix are set by its students. On warm nights they and the locals fill the outdoor tables around the Forum des Cardeurs and the lanes behind the town hall, an easy, inexpensive scene built around a drink in the open air rather than a late dance floor. A few wine bars and small clubs carry on after dinner, but the town is asleep long before Monaco's clubs fill up, and it goes quieter still when the university is on break. To dance until morning, you have to leave town.

Monaco has more going on after dark, but you have to dress for it. The night centres on the hotel bars of the Casino square and the polished clubs and lounges on the Larvotto seafront and at the port, where champagne comes with some ceremony and the yachts sit in the background. It peaks in summer and over Grand Prix weekend and is quiet the rest of the year. Aix's evenings are casual and cheap, while Monaco's are formal and costly, with no pubs or dive bars, so younger visitors often take the train to Nice for something looser.

Aix has the richer outdoors close at hand. Montagne Sainte-Victoire rises just east of town, with trails to the summit cross, and the Calanques, an hour away, offer some of the Mediterranean's best coastal walking. The Luberon, the Alpilles and the Gorges du Verdon add cycling, kayaking and canyon hikes. These are easiest with a car, and some areas close on high fire-risk days in midsummer.

Monaco itself is built up, but the limestone mountains rise right behind it. Old mule paths climb to Èze, the Tête de Chien cliff looks down on the whole principality, and coastal paths run around Cap d'Ail and Cap Martin. Its advantage is the water, which is clear enough for snorkelling, diving and paddleboarding.

Both are excellent bases, but for different regions and with different transport. From Aix you reach Roman and rural Provence: Marseille is half an hour away, Avignon is a short TGV ride, and Arles, Nimes and the Pont du Gard are within reach. The Luberon villages, such as Gordes and Roussillon, really need a car.

From Monaco the coastal train covers almost everything, from Villefranche and Nice to Menton. Èze is a short bus ride up the hill, and Antibes, Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Grasse are further along. Crossing into Italy for Sanremo or Dolceacqua adds a second country to the trip.

Monaco gives children more to do in a small, spotless space. The Oceanographic Museum's aquarium, the gentle water at Larvotto, the small animal garden and the palace guard fill a couple of days, and public lifts deal with the steepest climbs. The restaurants, though, are formal.

Aix is safe and largely pedestrian, with fountains and ice cream to break up a walk. Its sights are mansions and studios, though, and summer afternoons are very hot. Families there tend to rely on a pool and drive out to the zoo at La Barben or to the coast.

Both are towns you walk rather than drive, but Monaco is better connected beyond its own streets. The principality is about 3km end to end, with free lifts and escalators to beat the slopes, buses, and a small ferry across the harbour. Its station puts the whole Riviera within easy reach by train, and a car is more of a hindrance than a help.

Aix's old town is compact and easy on foot. However, the TGV station is well outside town on the plateau, and buses reach few of the countryside villages. Most visitors who want to explore end up hiring a car and hunting for parking.

The two are similar in range but opposite in character. Aix has French fashion boutiques along Rue d'Italie and Rue Fabrot, delicatessens, and above all its markets. Calissons, santons, olive-wood ware and printed fabrics are the things to take home, and there is no luxury quarter.

Monaco is almost entirely luxury. The Carré d'Or around the Casino gardens holds the fashion houses, jewellers and watchmakers, and beyond it there is little more than a small mall and souvenir shops on the Rock. For crafts or ordinary prices, Aix is the better place, or Nice.

Aix is expensive for the south of France, especially in July. Monaco, though, is in another category altogether: hotels, meals and even coffee are priced for the very wealthy. In Aix, market picnics and lunch menus in the back streets keep a stay manageable.

In Monaco the free things are the walks, the gardens and the public lifts. The usual way to save is to sleep in Nice, Menton or Beausoleil and come in for the day.

Aix's year on stage turns on one month: the July opera festival, with productions in the open-air courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace and tickets that go early. For the rest of the year, Ballet Preljocaj at the Pavillon Noir, touring companies at the Grand Theatre de Provence and plays at the Jeu de Paume keep a smaller programme going.

Monaco has resident companies of its own instead: the Monte-Carlo Opera in the gilded Salle Garnier inside the Casino, the Philharmonic and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Their seasons run mainly from winter into spring, and summer brings open-air concerts by the sea. Neither town is the place for a casual night of live music in a small venue.

The two relax in different kinds of water. Aix grew up around Roman warm springs, and the Thermes Sextius still offers thermal pools on the site of the old baths. Its real restorative, though, is the pace of markets, long lunches and plane-tree squares.

Monaco's version is seawater, at the thalassotherapy centre beside the Casino and in the grand hotel spas, plus quiet mornings in the Japanese Garden. Monaco's calm gives way during Grand Prix week, just as Aix's does in July.