Avignon or Portofino?

Portofino is the better choice for swimming, though neither is a classic beach destination. From the village you climb down the rock ladders towards the lighthouse into very clear water. There is sand at Paraggi, and a boat takes you to the pebble cove at San Fruttuoso. The catch is space: the free stretches are small and fill early in summer.

Avignon has no sea. The real summer swim is in the green pools of the Gardon below the Pont du Gard, about half an hour's drive away. The Camargue sands at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer are an occasional day out, not a daily habit, so most visitors use a hotel pool.

Avignon eats better, and with more variety. The stalls and lunch counters of Les Halles, daube and tians in the side-street bistros, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Côtes du Rhône poured by the glass make eating part of the reason to go.

Portofino's Ligurian food is good in itself: trofie with pesto, fritto misto and the cheese focaccia of Recco. But in the village it mostly means a few harbour terraces where you pay for the view. People who care about food go on to Camogli or the hill trattorie.

Here the gap is wide. Avignon has the largest Gothic palace in Europe, a UNESCO-listed papal quarter, almost 4km of medieval walls and three serious museums, from Italian primitives to contemporary art. Villeneuve-lès-Avignon across the river adds a charterhouse and a fort.

Portofino's main sight is the village itself, a horseshoe of coloured houses around the harbour. Add the church of San Giorgio, Castello Brown and the abbey of San Fruttuoso, and you have seen it all in about a day.

Both are quiet, but Avignon has a little more to offer. It has aperitifs on Place Pie, student bars near the university and, in July, festival crowds that keep the squares full until the small hours. Portofino's evening is one long aperitivo among dressed-up guests facing the yachts, then dinner. There are no clubs, and outside high summer the village goes to bed early.

Portofino has the edge because the landscape starts at the door. Park trails climb straight from the harbour through holm oak to Monte di Portofino and the cliff path to San Fruttuoso. Offshore, the marine reserve offers red coral walls, seagrass meadows and the Christ of the Abyss for divers and kayakers.

Avignon offers more varied landscapes, but they are further away: Mont Ventoux, the Luberon's ochre trails, the Alpilles and the flamingo lagoons of the Camargue. Most of them need a car, although the Île de la Barthelasse gives easy riverside cycling just across the bridge.

Avignon wins clearly. Within half an hour are the arenas of Nîmes and Arles, the theatre at Orange and the Pont du Gard. The wine villages, the Luberon hill villages and L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue are not much further, and Marseille and Aix are a quick high-speed train ride away.

Portofino's outings follow the coast. Boats and buses run to Santa Margherita, Rapallo and Camogli, and Genoa's palaces and old port are within an hour. In summer a ferry goes to the Cinque Terre, and getting there by boat is half the pleasure.

Avignon is the easier choice with children, though neither town is built around them. Children enjoy the tablet tour of the palace, dancing on the bridge from the song and the playground on the Rocher des Doms. The Pont du Gard and the Camargue horses are a short drive away.

Portofino is calm and safe. Boats, the castle and swimming off the rocks keep older children happy, but there are no playgrounds, the paths are steep steps that don't work with a pushchair, and the sand is mostly in paid beach clubs. Families usually stay in Santa Margherita.

Avignon is much easier to reach and to leave. It has a TGV station and regional trains to Arles, Nîmes and Marseille, and inside the walls almost everything is a short walk away, although the villages and vineyards still call for a car.

Portofino is tiny on foot, but only one narrow coast road reaches it. Parking is scarce, and the summer buses from Santa Margherita station are crowded. The ferries are the pleasant way in, but they run only from spring to autumn.

Avignon has the edge because what it sells actually comes from the region. Ignore the chain stores on the main street and the side lanes hold Provençal printed fabrics, lavender, olive-wood bowls and soap. The best buys tend to be jars of tapenade, olive oil and calissons from Les Halles. The weekend flea and flower markets give you a reason to browse on a Saturday morning.

Portofino is nearly the opposite. A few lanes behind the piazzetta hold big-name fashion and jewellery labels and resort clothes for the yacht crowd, with a little Ligurian lace and ceramics on the side. It fills half an hour before lunch. For a market or a proper afternoon of browsing, go to the arcades of Chiavari or into Genoa.

Avignon costs what a provincial French tourist town costs: not cheap, but set lunches, local wine and walking the old town are good value. July is the exception, when rooms inside the walls are booked far ahead at steep rates.

Portofino is in a different league. It has a handful of luxury hotels, pays heavily for its view and charges a lot for loungers, boats and parking. The usual way round it is to stay in Rapallo or Camogli and visit for the day.

For three weeks every July, Avignon becomes a world theatre capital. The Festival d'Avignon, founded in 1947, fills the Cour d'honneur of the papal palace, and the Off fringe takes over every cellar and courtyard in town. The rest of the year the Opéra Grand Avignon, small theatres and a jazz club keep a steady programme going.

Portofino has the occasional summer concert in the piazzetta or at the castle and nothing more. For opera or theatre you go to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.

Neither has a bathing culture, and in both places spa treatments mean hotel spas. Portofino is slightly the more restful. Early mornings by the water and shaded coastal paths with only the sea for company make it calming, though only outside the midday tour-boat crowds of high summer.

In Avignon the calm comes from long lunches under plane trees and the Rocher des Doms in the late afternoon. Many visitors who want real rest stay in a farmhouse among the vineyards instead. July and a mistral that blows for days both work against relaxing in town.