Antibes or Carcassonne?

This is where the two differ most. Antibes is a genuine beach town, with long sandy shores at Juan-les-Pins and La Salis that are rare on a coast mostly made of pebbles, and rocky coves such as La Garoupe for clear-water swimming. The private beach clubs take a lot of the sand, but there are free public stretches between them.

From Carcassonne, a swim means the supervised reservoir at Lac de la Cavayère or the drive of about an hour to Gruissan or Narbonne-Plage. Those beaches are good for a day, but the tramontane wind can make the sea choppy, and you can't step out of your door onto the sand.

Antibes eats slightly better, mostly because of its range. The covered market on Cours Masséna, Niçoise dishes such as socca and pissaladière, grilled fish and some serious tables on Cap d'Antibes give it more variety. The streets around the port, though, lean on tourist menus.

Carcassonne is narrower but has a clear identity: cassoulet, plus the reds of Corbières and Minervois and Limoux blanquette at fair prices. The rule is the same in both towns. Eat away from the main sight, which here means the Bastide around Place Carnot rather than the set menus inside the Cité.

Antibes has enough for a couple of easy days, though none of it is a great monument. The high point is the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi on the sea wall, which still holds the work he made there in the autumn of 1946. After that come the lanes and sea ramparts of the old town, the star-shaped Fort Carré above Port Vauban, and Villa Eilenroc and the Garoupe chapel out on the cape.

Carcassonne is in another league for history. La Cité, with its double ring of walls and fifty-two towers above the Aude, is the most complete medieval fortified town in Europe. Below it, the thirteenth-century grid of the Bastide and the UNESCO-listed Canal du Midi add a second layer. Each town takes about two days to see, but only Carcassonne has a sight that people plan a whole trip around.

Neither is a nightlife destination, but Antibes at least has a summer season. Juan-les-Pins runs beach bars and a few clubs into the early hours in July and August, and the yacht crews keep the pubs near Port Vauban busy. Nice is close for anything bigger.

In Carcassonne the night is a floodlit walk on the walls and a glass on Place Carnot, and serious going out means Toulouse or Montpellier.

Antibes has more on offer, and much of it is in the sea. Snorkelling, diving and paddleboarding in the clear water off the cape go alongside the coastal path, with the red cliffs of the Esterel and the gorges above Grasse within an hour.

Carcassonne's outdoors is entirely on land: beech forest in the Montagne Noire, garrigue and castle ridges in the Corbières, and rafting in the upper Aude gorges. The flat, plane-shaded Canal du Midi towpath is an easy cycling option, but almost everything else needs a car.

Both make excellent bases, and Antibes is the easier one. Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Menton are all on the coastal railway, and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Grasse, Biot and the Lérins Islands are close by. You can fill a week without hiring a car.

Carcassonne's outings are more dramatic but more spread out. Peyrepertuse and Quéribus on their ridges, Lagrasse, Minerve and the wine estates mostly need a car, and the train covers only Toulouse and Narbonne.

These two are about level for families, but they appeal in different ways. In Antibes the draw is the shallow sandy beach, in a small, safe town with boats in the harbour, but little else is built for children.

Carcassonne's draw is the castle itself, with drawbridges, jousting and falconry in summer, plus the lake beach, a water park and the animal park. Its steep cobbles are hard work with a pushchair, so it suits school-age children better than toddlers.

Antibes is easier without a car. The old town, the market and the port are a short walk apart, and two stations put the rest of the coast within easy reach by train. The weak points are the slow buses inland and the summer traffic on the coast road.

Carcassonne's flat Bastide is easy to walk, but the Cité is a climb of about twenty-five minutes, and the countryside that makes the area special is barely served by public transport.

Shopping is small-scale in both towns, though Antibes is the better browse. Its covered market, Provençal linens and ceramics and the old-town boutiques are worth an hour, and the boutiques of Cannes and Nice are a short ride away.

In Carcassonne, the Cité sells mostly plastic swords and Cathar trinkets. The things worth bringing home are wine, blanquette and tinned cassoulet.

Carcassonne costs noticeably less. It is priced like a provincial southern town, with moderate rooms in the Bastide, cheap wine and good set lunches. Hire car costs and premium hotels inside the walls are the main extras.

Antibes in July and August is priced like a luxury resort, and the beach clubs and seafront terraces add to the bill. Spring, autumn and self-catering from the market narrow the gap without closing it.

Each town has one standout summer event, and Antibes's carries more weight. Jazz à Juan, held under the pines since 1960, is one of Europe's oldest jazz festivals, and the Anthéa theatre keeps a programme going the rest of the year.

The Festival de Carcassonne in July puts concerts and theatre in the open-air theatre inside the Cité walls, which is an unforgettable setting, and Bastille Day brings fireworks over the ramparts. Out of season, Carcassonne is quieter still.

Antibes has slightly more pampering on offer, with a seawater thalassotherapy centre and grand-hotel spas on Cap d'Antibes that non-guests can often book.

Carcassonne relies on a few hotel spas and the small, old-fashioned thermal villages of the upper Aude, such as Alet-les-Bains. Its real calm comes from slow walks along the canal. In both towns, the restful months are the ones either side of high summer.