Bordeaux or Nice?

Bordeaux has no beach of its own, so a swim means about an hour's journey west. What you reach is wide, empty Atlantic sand at Lacanau, with big surf and rip currents, or the sheltered Arcachon basin, which is calm enough for small children. It makes a fine day out in July and August.

Nice has the sea on its doorstep. The pebble shore below the Promenade des Anglais runs for about 7km, and Villefranche and Beaulieu offer calmer coves a few minutes away. You can swim every day from June well into autumn, though on the stones a rented lounger or water shoes make a real difference.

Bordeaux eats better, and wine is the reason. Médoc, Graves, Saint-Émilion and Sauternes are poured by the glass, entrecôte is grilled over vine cuttings, and on weekend mornings Arcachon oysters are eaten at the Capucins market counters. Saint-Pierre and Chartrons have both classic brasseries and serious bistros.

Nice cooks closer to Italy, with socca, pissaladière and stuffed vegetables. It is at its best in simple family places in Vieux Nice, not on the promenade terraces. You will eat well and simply there, but the food has less depth, and the small Bellet vineyards are a curiosity next to Bordeaux's cellars.

These two are close, and the difference is in what you go to see. In Bordeaux the sight is the whole classical limestone city: the Place de la Bourse with its water mirror, the colonnaded Grand Théâtre and the tall separate bell tower of Saint-Michel. Its museums are good rather than famous.

Nice is stronger on art, with Matisse among the Roman ruins of Cimiez, Chagall's biblical cycle and Yves Klein at MAMAC, set against a Savoyard old town and Belle Époque villas. Lovers of painting will lean towards Nice, and those who like to wander and look at architecture towards Bordeaux.

Neither is a big party city, and in both a good night starts with dinner. Bordeaux is better for dancing late, because its clubs are grouped in old warehouses on the Quai de Paludate, and students around Place de la Victoire keep weekends lively during term.

Nice is a city of bars: busy lanes in Vieux Nice, a few calmer places at the port and beach clubs in summer. For a more glamorous night out, people go on to Monaco and Cannes.

Bordeaux's countryside is flat and gentle. There are cycling greenways through the Entre-Deux-Mers vineyards, the Dune du Pilat to climb, birds on the Arcachon basin and surf at Lacanau. It is good with a bike or a surfboard, but there is no hiking country nearby.

Nice has far more within reach. You can walk up Mont Boron and Castle Hill from the centre, and the Cap Ferrat paths follow a rocky shore. Inland, the high lakes of the Mercantour and the winter slopes of Isola 2000 are a couple of hours or less away, so mountains and sea fit into the same trip.

Both are excellent bases, but they lead to different things. From Bordeaux the trips are mostly about wine: Saint-Émilion by train, the châteaux of Margaux and Pauillac, and Sauternes to the south, with Arcachon and Cognac for a change. The estates themselves usually need a car or a tour.

Nice has more variety and is easier. Monaco, Èze, Antibes, Cannes, Grasse, Saint-Paul-de-Vence and even Sanremo over the Italian border are mostly less than an hour away by train or bus. Each feels different, and none of them needs a car.

Both are easy with children without being built for them. Bordeaux has a flat, largely car-free centre, the Miroir d'eau to splash in and puppet shows in the Jardin Public. Its best family days are on the Dune du Pilat and the calm Arcachon beaches.

Nice has the beach on the doorstep and water jets on the Promenade du Paillon. On the other hand, the pebbles are hard on small feet, the old town's steps are awkward with a pushchair, and summer heat and crowds weigh more there.

You need no car in either city. Bordeaux's centre is flat and largely pedestrianised, its trams are easy to follow, and riverside paths make cycling natural. Only the vineyard estates call for a driver or a tour.

Nice is just as compact, with a tram from the airport to the port and buses up to Cimiez. Its real advantage is the coastal railway that links the Riviera towns, though in summer those trains can be packed.

Shopping is much alike in the two cities. Each has a long high street, Rue Sainte-Catherine in Bordeaux and Avenue Jean Médecin in Nice, plus a luxury quarter and a large department store. The difference is what you take home. In Bordeaux it is wine from cellars that will ship abroad, with antiques along Rue Notre-Dame.

In Nice it is olive oil, soaps, Provençal fabrics and candied fruit from Vieux Nice, and on Mondays there is an antiques market on the Cours Saleya.

Neither is cheap, but Bordeaux costs less. Set lunches, cheap trams and a centre you can see on foot keep spending down, and the money mostly goes on château tastings and good bottles.

Nice costs more, especially from June to September, when hotel rooms near the sea and beach loungers add up quickly. Socca, market picnics and cheap coastal trains help, and spring or late autumn is noticeably easier on the budget.

Bordeaux has the better stage. The Grand Théâtre of 1780, with its gilded auditorium, is home to the city's opera and ballet. The national orchestra plays nearby, and a hall on the right bank puts on jazz and world music.

Nice has a 19th-century opera house and drama in French, but its high points are events: the Nice Jazz Festival every July and Carnival in February. In July that festival gives Nice more on than Bordeaux, whose season pauses in high summer.

Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, so relaxing looks different in each. Bordeaux offers vinotherapy at spa hotels among the vineyards, and real thermal water at Dax, about an hour and a half away.

Nice has hotel spas, thalassotherapy along the coast and the simple pleasure of an early swim. Its mild winters make it a calm place to slow down, though summer crowds take some of that away.