Bordeaux or Carcassonne?

Neither is a beach destination, but Bordeaux puts better swimming within reach. An hour west lie the long surf beaches of Lacanau and the Médoc, and the train reaches the sheltered Arcachon basin, warm and calm enough for small children, with Cap Ferret and the Dune du Pilat close by.

Carcassonne's everyday option is the lifeguarded Lac de la Cavayère, a good afternoon off rather than a beach. The Mediterranean at Gruissan and Narbonne-Plage is warmer than the Atlantic but needs a car, and the tramontane can make it choppy.

Bordeaux is one of the great eating and drinking cities of France, and Carcassonne cannot compete on range. Here you can taste Médoc, Saint-Émilion and Sauternes in a week, eat Arcachon oysters with white wine and steak cooked over vine cuttings, and choose between brasseries and ambitious bistros in Saint-Pierre and Chartrons.

Carcassonne eats more narrowly: cassoulet, good-value Corbières and Minervois reds and Limoux blanquette. The best meals are in the Bastide around Place Carnot, since restaurants inside the Cité walls are uneven.

Bordeaux edges ahead because it offers more to fill the days: a whole UNESCO-listed 18th-century city of pale limestone, the Place de la Bourse and its water mirror, Gothic churches, and museums on regional history, painting and contemporary art. It rewards three or four days of slow walking.

Carcassonne has the single more spectacular sight. La Cité, with its double walls and fifty-two towers, is unlike anything in Bordeaux, and the Bastide and Canal du Midi add to it, but museums are few and two days covers it.

Bordeaux has a real night out and Carcassonne largely does not. Wine bars and terraces fill Saint-Pierre, Place de la Victoire draws students, and the Quai de Paludate's clubs run until morning, especially on term-time weekends.

In Carcassonne the evening is a floodlit walk on the walls and a drink around Place Carnot. Anyone after late nights is pointed to Toulouse or Montpellier.

The two are evenly matched outdoors but offer different landscapes. Bordeaux's country is flat: vineyards, the Landes pine forest, and on the coast the Dune du Pilat, the birdlife of the Arcachon basin and serious Atlantic surf, best explored by bike along long greenways.

Carcassonne is the walker's choice, with the forests and gorges of the Montagne Noire, Cathar ridges in the Corbières and rafting in the upper Aude valley, though most of it needs a car and summer can be hot and windy.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference lies in the theme. From Bordeaux the outings are about wine and water: Saint-Émilion by train, the château country of Margaux and Pauillac, Sauternes, and the oyster ports of Arcachon.

From Carcassonne they are about castles and old villages: Peyrepertuse and Quéribus on their ridges, Lastours, Minerve and Lagrasse, plus Toulouse and Narbonne by train. More of Carcassonne's best trips depend on a car.

Both work for a few days with children, in different ways. Bordeaux is the easier practical choice: flat, largely car-free streets suit pushchairs, the Miroir d'eau doubles as a paddling pool, and the Dune du Pilat and Arcachon's calm beaches make a fine day out.

Carcassonne has the bigger thrill, a real castle with ramparts, jousting and falconry, plus the lake beach and water park. The catch is steep cobbles, summer crowds and midday heat in the Cité.

Bordeaux is much easier to get around without a car. Its flat, pedestrianised centre, clear tram lines and bike lanes link everything from Chartrons to Saint-Michel, and trains reach Saint-Émilion and Arcachon.

Carcassonne's town is small, but the Cité means a climb from the Bastide, and once beyond Toulouse and Narbonne the castles and villages are poorly served by public transport, so most visitors hire a car.

Bordeaux is a genuine shopping city by regional standards, with Rue Sainte-Catherine's long pedestrian high street, designer labels around Cours de l'Intendance and the antique dealers of Rue Notre-Dame. Its wine cellars are the real draw.

Carcassonne offers little beyond knight costumes in the Cité and a modest high street in the Bastide, so take home cassoulet, Corbières wine and blanquette instead.

Carcassonne is the cheaper stay, with moderately priced rooms in the Bastide, inexpensive local wine and a town small enough to walk. Its costly corners are the hotels and restaurants inside the Cité, high summer and car hire.

Bordeaux charges the prices of a prosperous big city, with dearer central hotels, and château tastings and wine tours add up quickly, though set lunches and cheap trams help.

Bordeaux has the stronger year-round programme, centred on the gilded 1780 Grand Théâtre with its opera and ballet, plus the national orchestra and venues for jazz and touring acts. It goes quiet in high summer.

Carcassonne works the other way: its arts life peaks in July, when the festival puts concerts and theatre on the open-air stage inside the Cité walls, and is thin the rest of the year.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and Bordeaux comes out slightly ahead thanks to vinotherapy at spa hotels among the vineyards and the calm of long lunches and the Jardin Public.

Carcassonne's small thermal villages in the upper Aude valley are modest, and its calm is best found on the Canal du Midi outside the summer crowds.