Bern or Paris?

Neither city has a coast, but Bern gives you real swimming in summer. You can walk upstream from the Marzili, jump into the cold, fast Aare and float back past the Federal Palace. For calmer water there are lakeside spots on Lake Thun, about twenty minutes away. The current is for confident swimmers only.

In Paris the summer river beaches and the canal pools at La Villette are pleasant places to cool off, but they are more about lounging than swimming. The nearest sea is the cool Channel at Deauville, two hours away.

Food is the biggest gap between the two. Paris treats eating as part of daily life. Every neighbourhood has its bakery and cheese shop, and the range runs from zinc-counter bistros to haute cuisine, with Vietnamese pho in the 13th and couscous in Belleville.

Bern cooks soundly in a traditional style. You will find the Berner Platte, fondue and rösti in guildhall rooms and cellar restaurants, good Emmental cheese at the markets and excellent chocolate. The choice is that of a small city, and you will not find much to surprise you.

Bern's old town is a lovely, complete piece of history: arcaded sandstone streets, the Zytglogge and the Minster, all on a loop of the river. The Zentrum Paul Klee and the Einstein Museum give it more depth than its size would suggest, but two days covers it.

Paris works on another scale. The Louvre, the Orsay and the Sainte-Chapelle are each worth a trip on their own, and the Haussmann boulevards and the Marais make even a walk between museums a sight in itself. The cost is queues and the need to book ahead.

Paris has a real night out. Evenings start on café terraces and in wine bars, carry on through the crowded bars of Oberkampf, Canal Saint-Martin and Belleville, and end in clubs playing house and techno until dawn. Some doors are selective.

In Bern, going out means vaulted cellar bars under the arcades, Aarbergergasse at weekends, terraces by the Aare in summer and rough-edged late parties at the Reitschule. It is friendly and small, and quiet on weekdays.

Bern is far ahead here, because it can see the Alps from its own streets. In about an hour the train reaches Interlaken and the Jungfrau region for high hiking and skiing. Lake Thun, the woods along the Aare, the Emmental and the Jura ridges offer gentler days.

Paris gives you formal gardens, the cliffs of the Buttes-Chaumont and the big woods of Boulogne and Vincennes. Fontainebleau's forest and boulders are the best of the countryside nearby, but the region has no mountains at all.

Bern's strength is ease. It sits at the hub of the Swiss rail network, so Lucerne, Basel and Zurich are about an hour away, and Murten, Fribourg and Thun are nearer still. From Fribourg it is a short onward trip to Gruyères and its cheese dairies. Most of these outings are to smaller towns set among lakes and mountains.

Paris has the longer list and comes out ahead. Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chartres are all about an hour away or less, Giverny is easy to reach, and fast trains take you on to Reims for Champagne, to Rouen and to the Loire châteaux. Its day trips lean towards great palaces and cathedrals rather than scenery.

Paris has more to fill a family trip. Disneyland and Parc Astérix are a short RER ride out, and the city has the Cité des Sciences, the Jardin d'Acclimatation and toy sailboats on the Luxembourg pond. The daily logistics are harder, with stairs in the metro, crowded trains and small hotel rooms.

Bern is easier but has fewer big attractions. The bear park, the Dählhölzli zoo and the Gurten playground make for relaxed days, and pushchairs move easily on the trams. Keep children away from the fast river.

Both are easy to get around, but in different ways. Bern's centre is small enough to cross on foot in about twenty minutes under covered arcades. The station sits at the top of the old town, and punctual trams and short funiculars handle the steep climbs up from the river.

Paris is a large city that still walks well along the Seine. Its dense metro means a station is never far away, but you have to cope with long corridors, rush-hour crowds and pickpockets.

Paris is one of the world's great shopping cities. It has the couture houses on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the historic department stores, the independent designers of the Marais and the old covered passages, the Saint-Ouen flea market, and the bouquinistes along the river.

Bern makes for a pleasant afternoon. You can walk under the arcades of Spitalgasse and Kramgasse for watches and chocolate, and climb down into the cellar shops on Gerechtigkeitsgasse for antiques and crafts. There is little luxury or fashion beyond that.

Neither is cheap, but Bern is the harder one on a budget. Even a plain guesthouse or a beer on a terrace costs more than in most of Europe. It helps that hotels usually include local transport and that the bear park, the river paths and Federal Palace tours are free.

Paris gives you more ways to save. You can eat cheaply from bakeries and at lunchtime set menus, picnic by the Seine, see the city's own museums for free and stay in the outer arrondissements.

Paris has a full calendar of performances. The Palais Garnier and the Opéra Bastille stage ballet and opera, the Philharmonie and the Maison de la Radio host orchestras, and there are jazz cellars on the rue des Lombards and cabaret in Pigalle. A good deal of the theatre is in French.

Bern has what you would expect of a small capital: opera and drama in German at the Stadttheater, the symphony orchestra at the Casino, and new dance at the Dampfzentrale. Its festivals, the spring jazz festival and the Gurtenfestival in July, are the main reasons to plan around a date.

Bern is the more restful city. The arcades are unhurried, Sundays are quiet and long riverside lunches are normal. A large thermal complex on the western edge adds pools and saunas, and mountain spa hotels in the Bernese Oberland are close.

Paris is loud and fast. Its rest comes in moments, such as the tiled hammam of the Grande Mosquée or an hour on a chair in the Luxembourg gardens.