Avignon or Toulouse?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Avignon is closer to the water. The Gardon's clear pools below the Pont du Gard are half an hour away. The Camargue sands and Le Grau-du-Roi make a day trip of a little over an hour.

From Toulouse, the Mediterranean at Gruissan and Narbonne is about two hours off, so a beach day is a long one. Closer to home, swimming means the supervised leisure lakes on the edge of the city, such as Sesquières. They are pleasant enough, but no match for a river gorge or the sea.

Both cities cook from their own region, but in different styles. Avignon's food is Provençal and lighter: tians, daube, tapenade and summer fruit. Its real strength is wine, with Châteauneuf-du-Pape on the doorstep. Les Halles on Place Pie is a fine market, though the restaurants on the main squares mostly serve tourists.

Toulouse is the better food city. Cassoulet, confit, magret and foie gras are everyday fare, the lunch counters upstairs at the Victor Hugo market are an institution, and the student quarters keep casual eating plentiful. Neither city offers much beyond French cooking.

Both repay two unhurried days, and the difference lies in period and building material. Avignon is Gothic and papal: the vast Palais des Papes, the broken bridge, the ramparts and the Italian primitives of the Petit Palais. It is all pale stone, packed into a small UNESCO-listed core.

Toulouse is Romanesque and built of rose-red brick. Its highlights are Saint-Sernin, the palm-tree vault of the Jacobins and the Renaissance mansions of the woad merchants. It also has something Avignon cannot offer: the aerospace museums and space centre on the outskirts.

Toulouse is the city for going out. Its large student population fills the terraces of Place Saint-Pierre and the quays, there are wine bars around Carmes for an older crowd, and clubs and an electronic scene carry on later. It does quieten in summer once the students leave.

Avignon works the other way round. For most of the year an evening means an aperitif on Place Pie and an early night. In July, though, the festival keeps the old town up until the small hours.

Avignon has the more dramatic scenery within easy reach. Mont Ventoux, the Luberon cliffs, the Dentelles de Montmirail, the Alpilles and the Gardon gorges are all around an hour away or less, and the Camargue's lagoons and flamingos lie to the south.

The countryside right around Toulouse is gentle farmland, best seen by bike along the towpaths of the Canal du Midi. Its great asset is the Pyrenees, with real mountain hiking and winter skiing, but they are one and a half to two hours away each way.

Day trips are where Avignon pulls clearly ahead. Nîmes, Arles, Orange and the Pont du Gard put first-rank Roman sites within half an hour. The Luberon villages, Les Baux, Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Aix can easily fill out a week.

Toulouse has two outstanding outings, the walled Cité of Carcassonne and brick-built Albi, both about an hour away by train. Moissac's cloister and Cordes-sur-Ciel add more, but the distances are longer and the list runs out sooner.

Toulouse is the better bet with children, mostly thanks to aerospace. There is the Cité de l'espace with its Ariane rocket and Mir module, a Concorde to walk through, and the giant mechanical creatures in Montaudran. With flat pavements and the Jardin des Plantes as well, days in the city are easy.

In Avignon, the tablet tour of the palace and a dance on the bridge will keep children happy for a morning. Most family days out, such as canoeing at the Pont du Gard or seeing the Camargue horses, need a car, and the cobbles are hard work with a pushchair.

Both centres are walkable, but Toulouse also has two automated metro lines, trams and a bike scheme, so the whole city is easy to cover without a car. Its flat streets are also easier on the feet than Avignon's cobbles.

Avignon is smaller, and almost everything inside the walls is within twenty minutes' walk. Regional trains to Arles and Nîmes are handy. However, there is only one tram line, and the cobbles and the mistral make walking more tiring.

Toulouse has more to shop for. There are chains and a large department store around Rue d'Alsace-Lorraine, independent boutiques and antiques in Saint-Étienne, and the big Sunday market at Saint-Sernin.

Avignon is smaller and more regional, with Provençal prints, lavender, soap and olive wood in the lanes off Rue Joseph Vernet. In both cities the best souvenirs are edible: violet sweets and Armagnac in Toulouse, tapenade and Rhône wine in Avignon. For serious antiques, Avignon visitors drive out to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Costs are much the same in both. They are provincial French cities, cheaper than Paris or the Riviera, and in each the set lunch is the best-value meal. The differences come down to timing and transport.

Room prices in Avignon swing sharply: steep during the July festival and far gentler in spring and autumn. A hire car is also hard to avoid if you want to see the countryside. Toulouse is steadier, with cheap eating in the student quarters and inexpensive public transport, though trade fairs push up hotel rates.

In July, Avignon has no rival. The Festival d'Avignon fills the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes, and the Off fringe adds well over a thousand shows a day across town. For the rest of the year the opera house and small theatres keep a modest programme going.

Toulouse offers a steadier, more classical programme. Opera and ballet at the Théâtre du Capitole, and the Orchestre National du Capitole in the round Halle aux Grains, make it the better choice for music outside July. Nothing in its calendar matches Avignon's festival.

Neither city has a bathing culture, so relaxing means hotel spas and the slow southern pace in both. Avignon has the edge in setting: farmhouse guesthouses among the vineyards and lavender, with a pool and little else to do, make an easy retreat, as long as you stay away from town in July.

In Toulouse, relaxing means long lunches and bike rides along the Canal du Midi. For real thermal bathing you need an overnight trip to Luchon or Ax-les-Thermes in the Pyrenees.