Avignon or Lucca?

Avignon has no beach life to speak of. The nearest real swim is in the green pools of the Gardon below the Pont du Gard, and the Camargue sands and the resorts around Le Grau-du-Roi are more than an hour's drive away, an occasional outing rather than a habit.

Lucca is much better placed. Trains reach Viareggio in under half an hour, and from there wide sandy beaches with tidy rows of umbrellas run north towards Forte dei Marmi, while the Lecciona dunes offer free beach backed by pine woods. Here a swim fits easily into an ordinary afternoon.

The two eat about equally well, but in different registers. Avignon cooks Provençal food with plenty of olive oil and herbs: daube, tians, tapenade and lamb, with Les Halles as its larder. The real draw is wine, with Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the Côtes du Rhône villages poured by the glass.

Lucca is more rustic: spelt soup, meat-filled tordelli, chestnut flour in the cold months, cecina from the bakery and the city's own buccellato, eaten in family trattorias inside the walls. Neither offers much food from elsewhere, and Lucca's menus repeat themselves sooner.

Each needs about two unhurried days, but what you see differs. Avignon is built around one monumental set piece: the vast Gothic palace of the popes, the cathedral and the broken bridge, together with serious art collections in the Petit Palais, the Musée Calvet and the Collection Lambert.

In Lucca the town itself is the sight. Its complete Renaissance walls enclose Romanesque façades such as San Michele in Foro, the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro and the tree-topped Torre Guinigi, while its museums are pleasant rather than essential.

Both are quiet towns after dark, though Avignon has a little more life, mostly because of July. During the festival its squares and terraces stay full until the small hours. For the rest of the year an evening means an aperitif on Place Pie and a few student bars.

Lucca's evenings are a passeggiata on the walls and dinner, and the centre is asleep by midnight. Anyone who wants to dance has to go out to the Versilia beach clubs in summer, which means a late drive or taxi back.

The landscapes around both are equally rewarding, but they are different country. Around Avignon it is open, sunbaked Provence: Mont Ventoux for cyclists, the Luberon's ochre trails, the white crags of the Alpilles and the lagoons of the Camargue with their flamingos and horses, all exposed to the mistral.

Lucca has softer olive hills close by and the steep marble peaks of the Apuan Alps within an hour. There are chestnut and beech woods in the Garfagnana and reed beds around Lake Massaciuccoli for birdwatchers. Spring and autumn suit both.

Both towns make first-rate bases, each for a different region. From Avignon the theme is Rome in Gaul: the arenas of Nîmes and Arles, the theatre at Orange with its stage wall still standing, and the Pont du Gard, with Aix and Marseille a short high-speed train ride away. Les Baux, the Luberon villages and the vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas are harder to reach, and for those you need a car.

Lucca's best excursions follow the railway. Pisa and the Leaning Tower are about half an hour away, Florence a little over an hour, and the sculptors' studios of Pietrasanta are up the coast, so all of these are easy without a car. The villa gardens at Marlia and Collodi are closer still, but buses there are sparse, so those days are much simpler with a car.

Lucca is the more relaxed town with children. Its centre is flat and mostly free of traffic, and cycling the walls on a family quadricycle is a whole morning's fun. Pinocchio Park at Collodi and the sandy beaches are both close, and Lucca Comics & Games in autumn delights older children.

Avignon has a few good moments, such as the tablet tour of the palace, dancing on the bridge from the song and the playground on the Rocher des Doms. Most family days out, though, depend on a car, and the cobbles and July crowds are hard work with small children.

Lucca is the easier of the two. Inside the walls it is flat and largely closed to cars, bikes are the normal way to get about, and the station sits just outside the southern gate with direct trains to Pisa, Viareggio and Florence.

Avignon is also walkable, but its lanes are cobbled and the mistral sweeps the open squares. High-speed trains stop at a station outside town, a shuttle ride away. In both places the countryside villages are poorly served by buses, so a car helps there.

Neither is a shopping destination, and they are broadly level. Avignon's best buys are Provençal: printed cottons, lavender, olive wood and above all tapenade, oil and wine from Les Halles. Serious antiques mean a trip to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Lucca brings the antiques to you, with one of Italy's oldest antiques markets filling the streets around the cathedral one weekend a month. Via Fillungo adds fashion and jewellery behind old Liberty-style shopfronts.

Costs are much the same: both are cheaper than their famous neighbours, Paris and the Riviera for Avignon and Florence for Lucca, but neither is a bargain. Set bistro lunches and producers' wine are the good buys in Avignon, while July festival rooms inside its walls are steep.

In Lucca, trattoria meals and regional trains are fairly priced, but there are few hotels inside the walls, so staying just outside them often stretches the budget further. Lucca's trains also save on car hire more often.

Avignon is the stronger stage. The Festival d'Avignon puts major productions in the courtyard of the papal palace and in cloisters across the region, while the Off fringe fills every cellar and hall in town. Outside July, the opera house on Place de l'Horloge, a dozen small theatres and a jazz club keep a regular programme going.

Lucca's music revolves around Puccini. Short recitals of his arias are held most evenings of the year, the Teatro del Giglio has an opera season, and in summer there is open-air opera by the lake at Torre del Lago, plus big pop concerts in Piazza Napoleone.

Lucca is the better place to unwind. Its traffic-free streets and shaded walls slow you down, and real spa days are close: the belle époque baths of Montecatini, the warm cave pools at Monsummano and the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca.

Avignon has only hotel spas and a few day spas. Rest there tends to mean a farmhouse guesthouse with a pool among the vineyards, and a July stay in town or a long spell of mistral is anything but restful.