Aix-en-Provence or Zermatt?

Neither town is a beach destination, but from Aix you can at least reach the sea. Marseille's city beaches, the coves of the Cote Bleue and the calanques near Cassis are all within about an hour by car. They are small, pebbly or rocky, and warm enough for swimming in midsummer.

Zermatt has no sea and no bathing lake. Its tarns are fed by glacial meltwater, so they are for photographing with the Matterhorn rather than swimming in, and a swim means the hotel pool.

Aix eats in the Provencal way. Mornings start at the produce stalls on Place Richelme, followed by a long terrace lunch of tapenade, daube and grilled fish with rose from vineyards on the edge of town, and calissons from the old confiseries for later. There are bistros and restaurants all year, even if the range rarely goes beyond French and Mediterranean cooking.

The best of Zermatt's food is up the mountain, at chalet terraces in Findeln, Furi and Zum See that you reach on skis or on foot. The menu is mostly hearty Valais food, raclette, fondue and air-dried beef with Petite Arvine or Cornalin. There are fewer choices, and many kitchens close between seasons.

Aix has much more to see. The plane-tree shade of the Cours Mirabeau, the honey-coloured mansions of the Mazarin quarter and a fountain on almost every square make the town worth walking for its own sake. Cezanne's studio at Les Lauves, the Jas de Bouffan and the Musee Granet fill two or three unhurried days.

Zermatt's heritage is about mountaineering and fits into a morning. You can see the Matterhorn Museum and its account of the 1865 first ascent, the climbers' graves by the church and the larch-wood granaries of the Hinterdorf. People come for the peaks, not the monuments.

Neither is a going-out town, but Aix has a bit more on most nights. Thanks to its students, the terraces around Forum des Cardeurs and behind the town hall stay full on warm evenings for much of the year, and Marseille is close if you want a proper club.

Zermatt's evenings depend on the season. In winter the après-ski bars on the runs back into the village are loud and cheerful, and a few bars on the main street stay open past midnight at weekends. In summer, hikers with early starts are usually in bed soon after dinner.

Aix has good country close by, with trails up Sainte-Victoire, coastal walks and kayaking in the Calanques, and cycling among the lavender and vineyards of the Luberon. In midsummer, though, fire-risk closures and fierce heat cut this short.

Zermatt is on a different scale. You walk out of the hotel and into the high Alps. Gondolas and the Gornergrat railway take you up among glaciers and dozens of four-thousand-metre peaks. Skiing links over into Italy, and in summer the same lifts open trails such as the Five Lakes walk and the Europaweg, with marmots and ibex in the larch woods.

Aix is one of the best bases in Provence for days out. Marseille is about half an hour away, the TGV reaches Avignon's Palais des Papes in twenty minutes, and Arles, Nimes and the Pont du Gard follow. With a car you can add Gordes, Roussillon and Senanque in the Luberon, plus Les Baux in the Alpilles.

From Zermatt, every outing starts with a long train ride down the valley. Sion, with its castle hills and vineyards, is the best of the trips. Brig and Saas-Fee make shorter outings, but most visitors spend their spare days back on the mountain.

Both are calm, safe places with children, but the days look very different. In Aix the pedestrian centre, fountains, ice cream and morning markets fill the mornings. Hot summer afternoons are best spent by a pool, with drives out to the zoo at La Barben or to the coast.

Zermatt has no traffic at all, children's ski schools and nursery slopes at Sunnegga in winter, and marmots and cog railways to keep them interested in summer. It works best for families who ski or hike together. Rainy days are hard to fill, and the thin air at the highest viewpoints can be too much for small children.

You can walk across the centre of either place, but Zermatt is easier for the trip as a whole. It is car-free, electric taxis cover the outlying stations, and the cog railway, the Sunnegga funicular and the gondolas all start within walking distance of the centre.

In Aix you can walk everywhere in the old town, but it gets harder further out. The TGV station is a shuttle ride away on the plateau, and the Luberon villages are poorly served by buses, so most visitors exploring Provence hire a car and then struggle to park it near the centre.

Aix is much better for browsing. The lanes around Rue d'Italie and Rue Espariat hold French fashion, delicatessens and homeware, and on market days the squares fill with flower, textile and bric-a-brac stalls. Calissons, santons, olive-wood ware and Provencal fabrics make good things to take home.

Zermatt has a single main street of watch and jewellery boutiques, souvenir shops and very good mountaineering outfitters. Come here to buy gear, not to browse.

Aix costs a good deal less, though when you go makes a difference. There are few hotels in and near the old town, and in July the opera festival pushes their rates up, so a stay in June or September is easier on the bill. Much of the accommodation is in boutique hotels and country houses, and the car most visitors hire for the Luberon adds to the cost.

Zermatt is expensive even by Alpine standards. Lift and cog-railway tickets take the place of the hire car in Aix and cost more, and a meal on a mountain terrace costs far more than in most of Europe. Sleeping down the valley in Täsch and taking an apartment to cook in save the most.

For music and the stage, Aix is far ahead. Each July the opera festival fills the courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace, and the rest of the year the Grand Theatre de Provence, Ballet Preljocaj at the Pavillon Noir and the old Theatre du Jeu de Paume keep the calendar going.

Zermatt has no theatre or concert hall. Outside the spring acoustic festival and the late-summer chamber concerts in the church, live music means a band in an après-ski bar.

The two are on a par for relaxation, but in different ways. Aix was built on Roman hot springs: warm water still runs from the mossy fountain on the Cours Mirabeau, and the Thermes Sextius spa stands on the site of the ancient baths. Its real calm comes from long lunches and slow afternoons in the shade.

Zermatt has no thermal water, but it has a great many good hotel spas with mountain views, along with clear air and streets with no traffic noise. The mood is active rather than idle, and the evening sauna follows a day of skiing or hiking.