Aix-en-Provence or Saint-Malo?

From Aix, the sea is always an outing: an hour's drive to the Calanques, Cassis or the Cote Bleue, or a bus and train via Marseille. The water there is the warmer Mediterranean, but the coves are small, pebbly or rocky and fill up in August, and plenty of visitors end up in the hotel pool.

Saint-Malo has the beach on its doorstep. The Sillon runs about 3km from the walls, small coves sit under the ramparts, and the Bon-Secours tidal pool keeps swimming possible at low water. The Channel stays cold, so people spend more time on the sand than in the water.

Aix eats to the Provencal market rhythm, with produce stalls on Place Richelme every morning, then long lunches of daube, tians and grilled fish with rosé from the vineyards just outside town, and calissons for afterwards. The back-street bistros give more for your money than the terraces on the Cours Mirabeau.

Saint-Malo is simpler: galettes with dry cider, kouign-amann, and oysters eaten by the harbour wall at Cancale. Inside the walls the crêperies cater mostly to day visitors and vary a lot, so the better meals are in Saint-Servan or along the bay.

Aix gives you more to see and more depth. The fountain squares and the honey-coloured mansions the parliamentary nobility built in the Mazarin quarter are beautiful to walk through, the cathedral spans Merovingian to baroque, and the Cezanne sites and the Musee Granet bring the painter's world to life.

Saint-Malo's great sight is the ramparts walk, with views over the harbour and the islands. Most of what lies inside was rebuilt after 1944. Add the Grand Bé, the Solidor Tower and the shipowners' country houses and you have a full day, but there are no serious museums.

Neither town goes out late, but Aix has more going on in the evening thanks to its students. The bars around the Forum des Cardeurs fill their outdoor tables on warm nights, and there are a few small clubs. Saint-Malo means a pub or wine bar inside the walls after dinner, and it goes quiet early outside July and August. For real clubbing you go to Marseille from Aix and to Rennes from Saint-Malo.

Aix has the more dramatic landscapes. You can hike Montagne Sainte-Victoire from the edge of town, walk the white cliffs of the Calanques, cycle the Luberon and kayak the Gorges du Verdon. The catch is summer, when heat and fire closures shut the massifs, so spring and autumn are the seasons for it.

Saint-Malo's outdoors is all about the coast: the GR34 path to Pointe du Grouin and the Emerald Coast, enormous tides, kayaking on the Rance and kitesurfing off the long beaches. Inland is flat farmland, but the mild summers keep it walkable in July.

Aix makes the richer base. Marseille is half an hour away, the TGV reaches Avignon's papal palace in about twenty minutes, and Arles, Nimes and the Pont du Gard make a run of Roman sites, with the Luberon villages and Les Baux closer still.

Saint-Malo has one great excursion, Mont-Saint-Michel about an hour east, plus medieval Dinan, Dinard by boat, Cancale and Rennes. In summer there are ferries to Jersey. From either town, the smaller places are much easier by car.

Saint-Malo is the easier choice with children. Sandcastles, the sea pool's diving board, forts reached on foot at low tide and the Grand Aquarium for rainy days keep children busy. Parents need to watch the fast incoming tides, and the water is cold for small swimmers.

Aix is safe and largely pedestrian, but its sights are mansions and museums and summer afternoons are very hot. Most families stay somewhere with a pool and drive to the zoo at La Barben or the coast.

Both centres are compact and easy on foot. Aix's old town and the Cours Mirabeau fit in a small pedestrian area served by little electric shuttles. Saint-Malo is more spread out but linked along the seafront promenade and by local buses, with a passenger boat to Dinard. One practical difference is that Saint-Malo's station sits in town with direct trains to Paris, while Aix's TGV station is out on the plateau and needs a shuttle. In both cases the countryside really calls for a hire car.

Aix makes the better shopping stop. Boutiques line Rue d'Italie and Rue Fabrot, the Allees Provencales have the chains, and the morning markets add fabrics, flowers and bric-a-brac, plus santons, olive wood and Marseille soap to take home.

Saint-Malo sticks to Breton specialities: striped sailor tops, salted-butter caramels, faience and a few galleries. For anything beyond that you need Rennes.

Neither is a cheap town, though Saint-Malo is a little easier on the wallet. In Aix the squeeze is accommodation: there are few central hotels, they are mostly boutique hotels, and July's festival pushes rates up. Saint-Malo is priced like a seaside resort in July and August, but a galette and cider costs little and rooms get noticeably cheaper in spring and autumn. In both towns, walking keeps transport costs down until you hire a car.

This is where the two differ most. In July, Aix stages one of the world's great opera festivals in the courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace. The rest of the year the Grand Theatre de Provence brings in touring orchestras, Ballet Preljocaj dances at the Pavillon Noir, and the Jeu de Paume theatre puts on plays and concerts.

Saint-Malo's cultural life comes mainly from its festivals: La Route du Rock for indie music, plus festivals of books and comics. Between those dates there is a modest theatre season and the odd cathedral concert, and for opera you go to Rennes.

Both towns offer a restful stay, built around different kinds of water. Aix has the warm springs the Romans founded it on, with a spa on the site of their baths, but its real tonic is the pace of market mornings and long lunches. Saint-Malo is a classic French centre for thalassotherapy, with heated seawater pools on the Sillon seafront, and it is at its most peaceful outside August, when you can walk the empty sand at low tide.