Avignon or Geneva?

Neither city is on the sea, but Geneva is the one where you actually swim. In summer the whole city takes to the lake, at the Bains des Pâquis jetty, on the Eaux-Vives lawns and along the quieter village shores, all within a tram or boat ride.

In Avignon the Rhône is not for swimming, so a cool dip means driving out to the green pools of the Gardon below the Pont du Gard, or a full day trip to the Camargue sands. Most days it comes down to the pool at your hotel or rental.

The two eat at roughly the same level but in different styles. Avignon is about Provençal market cooking: daube, tians and tapenade, the stalls of Les Halles, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape poured by the glass in the side streets off the tourist squares.

Geneva serves lake perch, fondue and Chasselas from its own vineyards, and the international organisations support a far wider range of foreign cuisines and polished fine dining. What it lacks is the cheap, casual meal that Avignon does well at lunchtime.

Avignon has the stronger heritage, and it comes all in one piece. The Palais des Papes, the cathedral, the broken bridge and almost 4km of ramparts form a single medieval townscape, with the Petit Palais and the Collection Lambert inside the walls.

Geneva's story is the Reformation and diplomacy, so its sights are more separate: St Pierre Cathedral, the Reformation Wall, the Palais des Nations, the Red Cross museum and CERN. They are interesting, but the city does not have Avignon's sense of walking through one great period.

Both are quiet after dark, but Geneva has a bit more going on in an ordinary week. The Pâquis bars stay busy late, Carouge has wine terraces, and the alternative centres around Plainpalais and Jonction run club nights.

Avignon goes no further than an aperitif on Place Pie and a few student bars for most of the year, and it is quiet by midnight. The exception is July, when festival crowds keep the squares full until the small hours.

Avignon's country is warm, dry and full of famous landscapes: the bare limestone summit of Mont Ventoux, the Luberon's ochre trails, the Dentelles de Montmirail and the Alpilles crags, with canoeing down the Gardon gorges and the flamingos and white horses of the Camargue lagoons. Spring and autumn are the seasons for it, because summer heat makes walking hard, and the mistral can blow hard for days.

Geneva still has the bigger outdoors. Mountains rise on every side, with Mont Blanc at the end of the lake, the Salève cable car and the Jura ridge just outside town, and Chamonix and the ski resorts about an hour away. The lake adds sailing, rowing and paddleboarding, so you can spend the whole stay outdoors in summer and winter alike.

Both are excellent bases, but Avignon has more within easy reach. Within half an hour are the arenas of Nîmes and Arles, the theatre at Orange and the Pont du Gard, and beyond them the Luberon villages, Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Les Baux. For the villages you really need a car.

Geneva's outings are spread more widely and are easier without a car. Lake steamers and trains go to Lausanne, the Lavaux terraces and the Château de Chillon, and Annecy and Yvoire are just over the French border.

Geneva is easier with children. The streets are flat and orderly, trams take pushchairs, the Natural History Museum's dioramas hold young children for hours, and the yellow harbour boats are a treat in themselves.

Avignon offers a tablet tour of the palace, a dance on the bridge from the song and the Rocher des Doms playground. After that, the family days out mean driving to the Pont du Gard or the Camargue, and the cobbles are hard going with a pushchair.

Avignon works on foot and by rail, but only up to a point. The walled centre is small enough that buses hardly matter, though the cobbles and the mistral make walking it more tiring than it looks, and Arles, Nîmes and Orange are short hops by regional train from the station by the walls. Arriving by high-speed train means one extra step, because the TGV stops outside town and a shuttle brings you in. Once the plan turns to the Luberon villages, the vineyards or Ventoux, public transport mostly runs out and you need a hire car or a tour.

Geneva has far fewer gaps. The airport is only a short train ride from the centre, and a single network takes you by tram out to the Palais des Nations and CERN and by boat across the harbour. The lake towns on the Swiss shore and the French districts over the border are all reachable by rail, so a car usually stays parked unless you're going up into the high mountains.

Geneva is a serious shopping city, mainly at the luxury end. The Rue du Rhône is lined with the big Swiss watch houses and jewellers, and Carouge's craft workshops and the Plainpalais flea market add something less polished.

Avignon is modest and local by comparison: Provençal prints, lavender and olive wood in the lanes off Rue des Marchands, and olive oil and wine from Les Halles. Serious antiques hunters drive out to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

This is where the two differ most. Avignon is not a bargain, but its lunch menus, local wine and free old town are fair value, and outside the July festival rooms are reasonable. The main extra cost is a hire car.

Geneva is among the most expensive cities in the world, with costly rooms all year and high prices for even a simple meal or a glass of wine. Free museums, the transport pass hotel guests receive and cheap lake lidos help a little, and many visitors cross into France to eat or sleep.

Avignon has the stronger stage overall. In July the Festival d'Avignon puts major productions in the Cour d'honneur of the palace, and the Off fringe fills every hall, cellar and courtyard with well over a thousand shows a day. The rest of the year is calmer, but the Opéra Grand Avignon, a dozen or so small permanent theatres and a jazz club give it more than most towns its size.

Geneva's offer is more formal and evenly spread. The Grand Théâtre runs a season of opera and ballet, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande plays in Victoria Hall, and the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in the middle of the Rhône hosts concerts and dance. It is solid, but nothing there draws an audience the way Avignon's July does.

Geneva has a real bathing habit. In winter the Bains des Pâquis runs a sauna and hammam, and regulars plunge straight into the lake. Évian and Divonne are close, and the calm Sundays help too.

Avignon's idea of rest is a long lunch under the plane trees, or a farmhouse guesthouse with a pool among the vineyards outside the walls. Beyond hotel spas there is little dedicated wellness, and July in town is anything but restful.