Baden-Baden or Lyon?

Neither city is a beach destination, and in both, swimming is a summer side note. Baden-Baden has gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain and outdoor pools. Lyon has a supervised bathing lake at Miribel-Jonage on its edge and, a drive of up to two hours away, the clear Alpine water of Lake Annecy and the Lac du Bourget, which make the more memorable swimming day out.

Lyon is one of the great eating cities of France, and the gap here is wide. A food lover can eat for days without leaving town: bouchons serving quenelles and andouillette, generous set lunches, a long fine-dining tradition and Les Halles Paul Bocuse, with Beaujolais and northern Rhône wine close by.

Baden-Baden eats well within its limits, with Flammkuchen, venison, Black Forest gateau, and Riesling or Pinot Noir in the Rebland wine taverns. But the town is small and its centre leans towards hotel dining and cake, so the most ambitious meals mean a drive into the northern Black Forest.

In Baden-Baden the main sight is the town itself, a Belle Époque spa preserved almost whole: the Kurhaus, the colonnaded Trinkhalle and the hillside villas. The Frieder Burda and Kunsthalle galleries round it out, and a day or two covers it.

Lyon covers far more history. It runs from the Roman theatres on Fourvière through the Renaissance lanes and traboules of Vieux Lyon to the silk-weavers' quarter of Croix-Rousse, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts is a major collection in its own right. Allow several full days.

Evenings in Baden-Baden centre on the casino in the Kurhaus, with its gilded rooms and dress code, followed perhaps by a hotel or wine bar, and the streets are calm by late evening. Lyon is the clear choice for a night out: a large student crowd, dense bar streets on the Presqu'île, pubs in Vieux Lyon, bar barges on the Rhône and a serious electronic club scene, though things end earlier outside term time.

Baden-Baden has the edge for countryside on the doorstep. The Black Forest begins at the edge of town, with the Merkur funicular, the Battert cliffs and trails into fir forest, and the High Road climbs to the Mummelsee and the moorland of the Hornisgrinde.

Lyon's outdoor life is more urban: car-free Rhône quays for cycling, the Parc de la Tête d'Or, the hill stairways and gentle walks in the Monts d'Or. Its wilder country in Chartreuse, Vercors and the high Alps is an hour or more away by car, but those mountains are far bigger than anything in the Black Forest.

Both make excellent bases, and the difference is in flavour. From Baden-Baden the pull is across the border to Strasbourg and the Alsace wine route, along with Heidelberg, Freiburg and the UNESCO sites at Speyer and Maulbronn.

Lyon's outings are Roman Vienne, medieval Pérouges, the Beaujolais and Burgundy wine towns, and Annecy on its lake. Lyon's nearest trips are easy by train, while Baden-Baden's Alsace and Black Forest outings really call for a car.

Lyon is the easier city for a family. The Parc de la Tête d'Or alone fills a day, with its free zoo, pedalos and small train, and there are also the dinosaurs at the Musée des Confluences, Guignol puppet shows and the Fourvière funiculars.

Baden-Baden is safe and calm, and children enjoy the Merkur funicular and the forest paths, but the town is built for adults and the Friedrichsbad does not admit young children. Families tend to treat it as a quiet base for Europa-Park, about an hour south.

Lyon makes a car-free visit easy: the Presqu'île is flat, and four metro lines, trams, funiculars and bike-share all share one network. Baden-Baden's centre is compact enough to walk, though steep in places, and the station is a bus ride out in Oos. For the Black Forest High Road, the wine villages or Alsace, a car makes far more sense.

Lyon has the range Baden-Baden lacks: chains along the rue de la République, luxury labels around Place des Jacobins, the large Part-Dieu mall, and more personal finds in Croix-Rousse silk and designer workshops. Baden-Baden's shopping is polished but small, with jewellers, watchmakers and boutiques on Sophienstraße and Lange Straße, and little beyond cuckoo clocks and local wine to take home.

Neither city is cheap, but Lyon is easier on the budget. Its bouchon set lunches are generous, the Tête d'Or zoo is free, and hotels are reasonable except during the big trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières.

Baden-Baden was built for the wealthy and still prices itself that way, with grand hotels and a charge for every visit to the baths. Guesthouses, bakeries and wine taverns soften the cost, but a stay centred on the spas soon adds up.

Both take classical music seriously, Baden-Baden remarkably so for its size. Its Festspielhaus brings leading international orchestras and opera, and the town's links with Brahms and Clara Schumann give a concert there a strong sense of place.

Lyon has more breadth: an opera company and ballet under the glass vault of the Opéra, the Orchestre National, grand playhouses, the Maison de la Danse, summer performances in the Roman theatres of Fourvière, and jazz in cellar clubs. Outside the concert hall, Baden-Baden has little to match it.

Bathing is the reason Baden-Baden exists, and Lyon cannot compete. Hot springs once used by the Romans feed the Friedrichsbad, with its silent, unclothed circuit of hot rooms and pools, and the modern Caracalla next door, and the whole town moves at a resting pace.

Lyon has hammams, day spas and an open-air pool on the Rhône quays, and its calm comes from long lunches and Sunday mornings by the Saône. For thermal water, its visitors go to Aix-les-Bains for the day.