Antibes or Bordeaux?

Antibes is a real beach town, unusually so on a coast mostly made of pebbles. The fine sand at Juan-les-Pins and La Salis is a walk from your room, and the coves and flat rocks around Cap d'Antibes give clear water for swimming. The catch is that private clubs hold much of the sand, and the free stretches fill early in high summer.

Bordeaux stands on the Garonne, so every swim means an hour by train or car. The reward is wild Atlantic sand at Lacanau, with surf and rip currents that keep you inside the flags, or the calmer, warmer Arcachon basin below the Dune du Pilat. It makes a fine day out, but you cannot fit a quick swim into a normal day.

Bordeaux is the better place to eat and drink, and wine is the reason. Médoc, Saint-Émilion, Graves and Sauternes are poured by the glass all over town, steaks are grilled over vine cuttings and Arcachon oysters are eaten at the counters of the Marché des Capucins. Chartrons, Saint-Pierre and Saint-Michel all have serious bistros.

Antibes eats well at a smaller scale. Mornings start at the Provençal market on Cours Masséna, and the cooking is Niçoise: socca, pissaladière, grilled fish and rosé. Beyond a few good bistros and the dining on the cape, choose carefully, because the streets near the port lean on tourist menus.

Bordeaux has much more to see, and most of it is the city itself. Long streets of 18th-century limestone run along the river past the Place de la Bourse and the Grand Théâtre, with Gothic churches and the Grosse Cloche between them. The Musée d'Aquitaine and the CAPC add depth, and three or four days pass easily.

Antibes has one sight of real weight: the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi, holding the work he painted there in 1946. The ramparts, Fort Carré and the lighthouse chapel on the cape make a pleasant round, but two days covers it.

Bordeaux has the fuller and steadier night out. Wine bars and terraces fill the squares of Saint-Pierre, students keep Place de la Victoire loud, and the warehouse clubs of the Quai de Paludate run until morning, best on term-time weekends.

In Antibes, going out depends on the season. In July and August Juan-les-Pins has beach bars and a few late clubs, and the pubs near Port Vauban fill with yacht crews, but out of season it closes early and anyone after a big night takes the train to Nice.

Antibes has the more varied outdoors. The path round Cap d'Antibes crosses carved limestone with views to the Alps, and the clear water off the cape suits snorkelling, diving and paddleboarding. Within an hour you reach the red cliffs of the Esterel and real hiking in the Gorges du Loup and the hills above Grasse.

The country around Bordeaux is flat, and its best outdoor days are on the coast: climbing the Dune du Pilat, kayaking or birdwatching on the Arcachon basin, or surfing at Lacanau. Cycling the greenways through the vineyards is the easy pleasure, but there are no hills to hike within reach.

Both make excellent bases, but Antibes has more within easy reach. One coastal railway line strings together Cannes, Nice, Villefranche, Monaco and Menton. Boats cross to the Lérins Islands, and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Eze, Grasse, Biot and Vallauris sit in the hills nearby, with Italy at the end of the line.

From Bordeaux the trips are mostly about wine. Medieval Saint-Émilion is a short train ride, and Arcachon is an easy hour away. The châteaux of the Médoc and Sauternes are the real prize, but they need a car or a tour.

Neither city is much better for families than the other, but the trips are different. Antibes is a beach vacation: sandy, shallow water suits small children, the town is small and easy, and the boats in Port Vauban fill the hours between swims, though there is little else built for children.

Bordeaux is a city trip that happens to suit families. Trams and car-free streets suit pushchairs, and children can splash in the Miroir d'eau or visit the Jardin Public and Cap Sciences. The beaches and the Dune du Pilat take a day out.

Bordeaux is the easier city to move around. Its flat, largely pedestrian centre runs along the left bank from Chartrons to Saint-Michel, and clear tram lines and bike lanes cover the rest, so you need a car only for the wine estates.

In Antibes, the old town, market and port are compact enough to walk, and the coastal railway is excellent for other Riviera towns. Away from that line it gets harder. Buses to the cape and the hill villages are slow, the Esterel and Grasse really need a car, and summer traffic on the coast road is heavy.

Bordeaux has far more shopping. Rue Sainte-Catherine has the chains and a department store, the Triangle d'Or has luxury labels and Rue Notre-Dame in Chartrons has antiques. Above all, the wine cellars stock everything from table wine to old vintages and will ship your bottles home.

Antibes keeps to small, local things: olive oil, herbs and soaps from the covered market, and Provençal linens and ceramics in the old town lanes. For fashion, people go to Cannes or Nice, and the glass and pottery are best bought in Biot and Vallauris.

Neither is cheap, but Bordeaux is easier on the budget. Its hotels cost what you would expect in a prosperous regional city, and set lunches and inexpensive trams keep daily costs down, with the money going on château tastings and good bottles.

In high summer Antibes charges resort prices, both for rooms near Juan-les-Pins and on the cape and for loungers at the beach clubs. Spring and autumn bring rates down sharply, and the regional trains and market picnics help.

Bordeaux offers more through the year. Opera and ballet fill the gilded 1780 Grand Théâtre, the national orchestra plays nearby, and halls for jazz, world music and touring acts round out a solid regional scene. Most of it pauses in high summer.

Antibes comes into its own just when Bordeaux goes quiet. Jazz à Juan, running since 1960, puts concerts under the pines by the sea each July. Outside the festival there is the regional programme at the Anthéa theatre, and for opera you go to Nice.

The two are level here, and neither has a bathing tradition. Antibes offers seawater thalassotherapy and the spas of the grand hotels on the cape, and it is most restful in May, June and September, before or after the summer crowds.

Bordeaux's answer is vinotherapy, grape-based treatments at spa hotels among the vineyards just outside town, plus long lunches and walks along the quays. Anyone wanting real thermal springs can reach Dax in about an hour and a half.