Avignon or Lausanne?

Neither town has a beach, but Lausanne makes swimming far easier. In summer you can walk or take the metro down to the lake and swim from the lawns and pebble shores at Vidy or Pully, or spend the afternoon at the old Bellerive lido.

Avignon's Rhône is not for swimming. The nearest good swim is in the Gardon pools below the Pont du Gard, about half an hour away by car, and the Camargue sands are over an hour away. In practice most visitors swim in a hotel or rental pool.

The two are evenly matched, and both lean on their local wine. Avignon cooks Provençal: daube, tians, tapenade and fruit from the plain, best seen at the Les Halles market, with Châteauneuf-du-Pape reds poured by the glass in the side-street bistros.

Lausanne serves lake perch, papet vaudois and winter fondue with Chasselas from the Lavaux terraces. Its top-end restaurants are among Switzerland's most celebrated, but cheap, everyday meals are harder to find than in Avignon.

Avignon has the bigger set of sights. The Palais des Papes, the cathedral, the broken bridge and the ramparts make up a medieval ensemble on a scale few towns can match, and the Petit Palais and Villeneuve's charterhouse add depth.

Lausanne's old town is smaller and steeper, with the cathedral and its night watchman at the top. Its strength is its museums: the Olympic Museum at Ouchy, the cluster at Plateforme 10 and the unusual Collection de l'Art Brut.

Lausanne is the better place for a night out for most of the year. Thanks to its large student population, the Flon fills its old warehouses with clubs and late bars at weekends, and in summer the lakeside at Ouchy stays busy in the evenings. Drinks are expensive, though.

Avignon is the opposite: an aperitif on Place Pie, then quiet streets by midnight and almost no clubs. The exception is July, when the festival keeps the squares full into the small hours.

Lausanne has the more striking setting. The French Alps rise across the lake, the Lavaux terraces make a superb walk, and within an hour you can be skiing or hiking at Villars or Les Diablerets, or out on the Jura ridges. Much of it is reachable by train.

Avignon's countryside is fine in a different way: Mont Ventoux for cyclists, the Luberon's ochre trails, the Alpilles and the Camargue's flamingos and white horses. It is best in spring and autumn, because of the summer heat and the mistral, and most of it needs a car.

Both make good bases, but Avignon has the richer choice. Nîmes, Arles, Orange and the Pont du Gard give you some of the best Roman remains outside Italy within half an hour, and the Luberon villages, Les Baux and the Châteauneuf vineyards are close behind, though you need a car for the villages.

Lausanne's outings are more varied and easier to reach without a car. Trains run to the Château de Chillon, Gruyères, Bern and Geneva, and boats cross the lake to the French shore.

Lausanne works better with children. They have the interactive Olympic Museum, the aquarium-vivarium, Sauvabelin's animals, pedal boats and lookout tower, and summer afternoons at the lakeside pools, though the steep streets are hard work with a pushchair.

In Avignon the palace's tablet tour and dancing on the bridge from the song make a good morning, but little else in town is aimed at children. The best family days, canoeing at the Pont du Gard or seeing the Camargue horses, all need a drive.

Lausanne is easier to get around overall. The city is steep, but the m2 metro climbs from the lake to the upper town, and Swiss trains and lake boats reach almost everywhere you would want to go.

Avignon's walled centre is compact and easy to walk on the flat, if cobbled. Regional trains serve Arles, Nîmes and Orange well, but the hill villages and Mont Ventoux are hard to reach without a hire car.

Neither is a shopping destination, and Lausanne has only a slight edge. Its Rue de Bourg has Swiss watches, jewellery and chocolatiers, and the Flon adds chains and a few design shops.

Avignon's shops are more homely: Provençal cottons, lavender and soap in the lanes off Rue des Marchands, with tapenade and wine as the best things to take home. Serious antiques hunters drive out to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

There is a big gap here, and it favours Avignon. It is not a bargain, but bistro set lunches and wine bought from the growers are good value, and spring or autumn rooms are reasonable. July rooms are the exception, and the hire car adds to the bill.

Lausanne is very expensive in almost everything, from hotel rooms to a simple lunch. Visitors on a budget picnic by the lake and save restaurants for special occasions.

Avignon comes out ahead, but nearly all of that lead belongs to three weeks in July. The festival turns the papal palace's great courtyard into a stage, and the fringe spreads into almost any room with seats, so you can walk in off the street and see several shows in a day. Visit in another month and the town settles down to opera at the Opéra Grand Avignon, a few small theatres and some jazz.

Lausanne has nothing to match that peak, but its programme runs through the year and has more range. Dance is its speciality, with the Béjart Ballet and the Prix de Lausanne, and the Théâtre de Vidy brings internationally known contemporary work to the lakeshore, alongside a full opera season and a respected chamber orchestra. Outside July, a theatre or concert lover has more to choose from here, and the Montreux Jazz Festival in summer is a short train ride away.

Lausanne is the better place to unwind. It has lakeside promenades, spas in the grand hotels and the region's wellness retreats, and thermal springs at Yverdon-les-Bains and Lavey-les-Bains are within easy reach by train.

Avignon offers shaded squares and long lunches rather than spas. Visitors after real rest tend to stay outside the walls in vineyard farmhouses with a pool, away from the July crowds and the mistral.