Antibes or Avignon?

This is the widest gap between the two. Antibes has sand at Juan-les-Pins and La Salis, which is rare on this coast, and rocky coves such as La Garoupe around the cape. The sea is warm from June into early October, though private beach clubs take much of the sand.

Avignon has no beach of its own. The swimming is in the Gardon pools below the Pont du Gard, half an hour away by car, or on the Camargue sands more than an hour south. Most visitors settle for a hotel pool.

Both cook Provençal and both have a fine covered market, but Avignon has the edge. At Les Halles on Place Pie, counters cook lunch from what the stalls sell. The inland kitchen of daube, lamb and tians draws on the plain around the town, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the Côtes du Rhône fill the glasses.

Antibes cooks in the Niçoise style: socca, pissaladière, grilled fish and rosé, bought or eaten around the Cours Masséna market. There are some serious tables on the cape, but the streets by the port are full of tourist menus.

Avignon has far more to see. The Palais des Papes, the cathedral and the broken Pont Saint-Bénezet form a UNESCO-listed group, and medieval ramparts still circle the town. The Petit Palais, the Musée Calvet and the Collection Lambert add serious art.

Antibes rests on one fine museum, the Picasso collection in the Château Grimaldi. Beyond that it has the old town lanes, Fort Carré and a few small museums. They fill a pleasant morning or two between swims but are not the reason to go.

Neither is a nightlife town, but Antibes offers more in summer. In July and August, Juan-les-Pins keeps its beach bars, lounges and a few clubs going until the early hours. Yacht crews fill the pubs and wine bars by Port Vauban.

In Avignon an evening out means an aperitif on Place Pie, and the streets are quiet by midnight, with almost no clubs. Festival July is the exception, when the squares stay full late. Otherwise people go to Marseille or Montpellier for a real night out, just as Antibes sends them to Nice.

Both are good bases for the outdoors, but in different ways. In Antibes the outdoors means the sea: the coastal path around the cape, snorkelling and diving in clear water, sailing and paddleboarding. The red cliffs of the Esterel and the Gorges du Loup are within reach for hiking.

Around Avignon the outdoors is inland. Mont Ventoux draws cyclists and hikers, and there are the ochre trails of the Luberon, the Dentelles and the Alpilles, and canoeing on the Gardon. In the Camargue you can see flamingos and white horses. Spring and autumn suit it best, because summer heat and the mistral can make it hard going.

From Antibes the day trips follow the coast by rail. Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Menton are all on the line, so you don't need a car, and boats cross to the Lérins Islands. Inland, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Eze and the perfume houses of Grasse make a gentler day out, and Sanremo across the Italian border is within reach.

Avignon swaps the sea for Roman sites and the countryside. The arenas of Nîmes and Arles, the theatre at Orange and the Pont du Gard are all within half an hour. Further out are the Luberon villages, the antiques dealers of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and the vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The Roman towns are easy by train, but the villages really need a car.

Antibes suits children better, mainly because of its sandy, gently shelving beaches, which small children find much easier than pebbles. Boats in the port and the walk round Fort Carré fill the time between swims, and older children can snorkel off the cape.

Avignon has a few things children enjoy in town: the tablet tour of the Palais des Papes, dancing on the bridge from the song and the Rocher des Doms playground. The best family days, though, are at the Pont du Gard or in the Camargue, and both need a car. The cobbles are hard work with a pushchair.

The two are equally easy to get around, with similar strengths. Each has a walkable core: the old town and port in Antibes, the area inside the ramparts in Avignon. Each also has good rail links to bigger towns, along the coastal line from Antibes and by regional and TGV trains to Arles, Nîmes and Marseille from Avignon.

The weak point is the same in both. The hill villages, Mont Ventoux and the Esterel all need a car. Antibes adds summer traffic on the coast road, while Avignon's cobbles and the mistral make walking more tiring.

Neither town is a place to shop seriously, and in both the things worth taking home are Provençal. Where they differ is in where you find them. Antibes keeps its best buys in the covered market and the independent shops of the old town, and for crafts you go to the villages that make them, Biot for glass and Vallauris for pottery.

Avignon is more of an ordinary working town. Both have a Rue de la République, but Antibes' has independent boutiques while Avignon's is lined with high-street chains. Avignon's souvenirs are mostly things to eat and drink, such as calissons, tapenade and Rhône wine bought from the growers. Its equivalent of the craft-village trip is an outing to the antiques dealers of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Avignon is the cheaper stay. It has the prices of a provincial town, with fair set lunches and wine at producers' prices. Rooms inside the walls only become steep during the July festival, though a hire car adds to the bill.

Antibes has Riviera prices. In summer, rooms on the cape and near Juan-les-Pins are priced like a luxury resort, and beach loungers are costly too. Visiting in spring or autumn, buying food at the market and using the cheap coastal trains all help.

Avignon is the clear choice. The Festival d'Avignon, founded in 1947, fills the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes each July. Alongside it, the Off fringe puts on more than a thousand shows a day across town. Outside July, the Opéra Grand Avignon, small theatres and a jazz club keep a programme going.

Antibes has one major event, Jazz à Juan, held under the pines each July and among Europe's oldest jazz festivals. Beyond that there is the Anthéa theatre, and people go to Nice for opera.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so the two offer different ways to relax. Antibes has seawater thalassotherapy and the grand hotel spas on Cap d'Antibes, with slow market mornings and walks on the ramparts in May, June and September.

In Avignon the calm comes from shaded squares under plane trees and the Rocher des Doms garden in the late afternoon. Many people who come to unwind stay outside town among the vineyards and lavender, with a pool. Both are least restful in July, Antibes because of beach crowds and Avignon because of the festival.