Annecy or Strasbourg?

Annecy's lake gives it a genuine summer of swimming. The water is clear and green-blue, there are grassy beaches at Albigny and the Marquisats, and quieter village spots at Talloires and Doussard. The season only runs from about late June to early September, though.

Strasbourg has no lake of that kind. Locals swim in old gravel pits such as the Baggersee, which you can reach by tram. These are pleasant and lifeguarded in high summer, but they are somewhere to cool off, not a reason to come.

Both cook rich mountain or border food that suits winter. In Annecy that means tartiflette, fondue and lake fish. Its best eating is at the market and in the lakeside villages, and the canal-side terraces in the old town are hit and miss.

Strasbourg eats better and in more ways. The winstub tradition brings choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée with a pichet of Alsace Riesling. On top of that there are foie gras, local beer, a strong fine-dining tier and December's spiced bredele biscuits.

Annecy's sights are its old town itself: the canals, the Palais de l'Isle and the château museum above them. It is lovely, and you can see it all in one unhurried day.

Strasbourg has a lot more. The pink sandstone cathedral, Petite France and the German-built Neustadt together make up a UNESCO-listed whole. The Palais Rohan museums, the Oeuvre Notre-Dame and the modern art museum by the river need two or three days, and the European institutions add a present-day side.

Neither is a late-night city. In Annecy an evening usually means a drink on a canal terrace or by the lake, and the town is quiet by midnight outside summer. Strasbourg's large university gives it more going on. Krutenau and Place Saint-Étienne have student bars and beer cellars, so a bar crawl is easier there, but neither city has more than a few clubs.

This is where Annecy is strongest. Trails climb from the edge of town, the Tournette and Parmelan give full days in the mountains, and the Col de la Forclaz is one of Europe's great paragliding launches. In winter, the Aravis ski resorts are under an hour away.

Strasbourg's own green space is flat. It has the Orangerie, the Rhine forests with storks and beavers, and excellent level cycling routes. For real hills you have to go about an hour out, to the Vosges or the Black Forest.

Both are good bases, but they point you in different directions. From Annecy, the outings are Geneva, Chambéry, Aix-les-Bains and the mountain town of Chamonix under Mont Blanc, and a car helps for several of them.

Strasbourg has more options, and they are easier to reach. Colmar is half an hour away by train, and the Alsace wine villages lie in between. Across the Rhine are Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Heidelberg, with Basel and Nancy also within reach.

Both are safe, manageable towns with children. In summer Annecy is all about the lake, with pedal boats, beaches, the flat cycle path and mountain toboggan runs, but it has little built for children, and the appeal fades out of season.

Strasbourg has a slight edge. It has the Le Vaisseau science centre, boat trips and the storks in the Orangerie. Europa-Park, one of Europe's largest theme parks, is about an hour away, which keeps families busy whatever the weather.

You can walk around central Annecy, and the bike path and summer lake boats link it to the shore villages. Trailheads, mountain passes and Chamonix, however, are much easier with a hire car.

Strasbourg is the easier city without a car. Trams run to the station, the European quarter and even across the river to Kehl. It also has some of the best cycle lanes in France, and you only need a car for the wine villages.

Annecy is a town for edible souvenirs. Market mornings under the arcades of the old town are the highlight, with Savoyard cheese and mountain liqueur to carry home. The side streets mix a few craft and outdoor shops with a great many souvenir shops, and anything more ambitious means a trip across the border to Geneva.

Strasbourg has a proper city centre to shop in, with department-store and high-street shopping around Place Kléber, and bookshops and delis near the cathedral. Its regional crafts go beyond food to Alsatian pottery and linens. In December the Christmas market fills the old town with stalls of decorations, though plenty of them are mass-produced. Neither town is a place for fashion.

Neither is cheap, but Strasbourg is the easier on your budget. It is priced like a regional city, with reasonable winstub meals, good-value wine and cheap trams and bike hire. Rooms only jump during the Christmas market and the weeks the European Parliament sits.

Annecy charges resort rates in summer, and being close to Geneva keeps its prices high all year. On the other hand, the lake beaches and mountain trails cost nothing. Self-catering and the shoulder seasons also help a lot.

Annecy's arts life is centred on Bonlieu, the lakeside scène nationale. Its season of contemporary theatre, dance and circus is good for a town of this size. Summer brings outdoor concerts and the Fête du Lac fireworks over the water in August, but for anything on a grand scale you have to go to Geneva or Lyon.

Strasbourg offers much more, in both scale and range. As well as its resident opera and orchestra, it has an autumn festival that has made it a centre for contemporary music, a jazz festival and smaller halls where touring rock bands play, so there is far more to choose from in any season. What it lacks is music you simply come across in the street, so it pays to book around the programme.

Annecy relaxes you mostly through its pace and setting: mornings by the water and hotel spas in quiet lakeside spots at Talloires. For thermal bathing you go to Aix-les-Bains or Saint-Gervais.

Strasbourg has its own historic Bains municipaux, with tiled pools, a hammam and saunas. Baden-Baden's Friedrichsbad and Caracalla baths are under an hour away. Each place loses its calm at its peak season, Annecy in midsummer and Strasbourg in December.