Cannes or Marseille?

Cannes is the easier beach town. The fine sand of the Croisette slopes gently into calm water right in the centre, and the long, mostly free Plage du Midi gives you room away from the private concessions.

Marseille's city beaches are plainer: shingle and imported sand at the Prado, and rocky swimming spots along the Corniche. Its best swimming is in the Calanques, where the water is clearer and the setting far more striking than anything on the Croisette, but each cove takes half a day on foot or by boat. Cannes has its own wilder swimming at the Lérins islands and the Esterel coves, and both are closer to hand.

Marseille has the wider and more characterful food. Noailles brings North African, Comorian and Armenian cooking into everyday meals, the bouillabaisse in the small Corniche harbours is the classic version, and cheap street food such as panisses and wood-fired pizza fills the gaps.

Cannes cooks well from Provençal produce, best seen at the Forville market and in the bistros of Le Suquet, and its fine dining around the palace hotels and Mougins is strong. Its range is narrow, though, and few dishes are its own. Both old ports have their share of tired menus for passing crowds.

Here the gap is wide. Cannes's sights, the castle museum on Le Suquet, the Belle Époque hotels and the festival steps, fit into a morning. Marseille has some twenty-six centuries of history to explore: the MuCEM and the harbour forts, the Vieille Charité, Abbaye Saint-Victor, the Château d'If and Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse.

That heritage is spread through a rough-edged working city rather than a preserved old town, so seeing it takes some legwork. Even so, for a trip built around sightseeing, Marseille is the clear choice.

Marseille has more going on, and on more nights of the year. Students and locals fill the graffiti-painted bars and pavement tables of Cours Julien and La Plaine, and there are electronic nights in warehouses if you want to dance. Some streets feel edgy late at night, so a taxi home is sensible.

Cannes is a different kind of night out: champagne at the Croisette beach clubs and a few dressy clubs, mainly from June to September and during festival weeks. Out of season it settles into an aperitif and dinner.

Both have dramatic coastline nearby, but Marseille's lies inside its own city limits. The Calanques national park has one of the Mediterranean's great coastal walks, well-known sport climbing, and kayaking and diving around the Riou archipelago. Sainte-Victoire and the Sainte-Baume forest are within an hour.

Cannes relies on the red volcanic rock of the Esterel, about twenty minutes west, the pine paths of Sainte-Marguerite and the shore path round Cap d'Antibes, with skiing in the Alpes-Maritimes in winter. In both places, high summer fire risk can close the trails.

Both make excellent bases, but they open onto different regions. From Cannes the coastal train links the Riviera towns: Antibes, Nice, Villefranche, Monaco and Menton. Grasse, Mougins and perched villages such as Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Èze lie just inland.

Marseille faces Provence and its Roman past. Aix and Cassis are close, Arles and Avignon are around an hour by train, and the Luberon, Les Baux and the Pont du Gard are within reach by car. Choose by whether you would rather see glamorous coast and art villages, or Roman towns and countryside.

Cannes is slightly easier with small children. Its sandy beaches slope gently into calm water, the flat Croisette suits pushchairs and has carousels and play areas, and the compact centre feels safe.

Marseille has the Prado beaches, the lake and lawns of Parc Borély and boat trips to the Château d'If, but steep streets, narrow pavements and heavy traffic make buggy days tiring. Neither city has much built for children, and families in Cannes often go along the coast to the aquarium in Monaco.

Cannes is far simpler on foot. Everything central is within about twenty minutes' flat walk, apart from the climb to Le Suquet, and the station in the middle of town makes the coast easy to reach.

Marseille is a large, hilly city. The core is walkable and the metro and trams help, but the beaches and Calanques trailheads depend on buses that crawl in traffic. The summer harbour ferries are a pleasant way round the roads. In both, the inland villages are much easier with a car.

For fashion, Cannes is the plain winner. The great Paris houses line the Croisette, and Rue d'Antibes adds over a kilometre of mid-range French shops, far more than Marseille offers on Rue Paradis and Rue de Rome.

Marseille is better for things to take home: green cubes of Marseille soap, santon figures from the Le Panier workshops, and the crowded fabric and spice streets of Noailles. Cannes's equivalents are the olive oil and Provençal fabrics of Rue Meynadier, and perfume from nearby Grasse.

Marseille is the cheaper stay by some distance. Away from July and August its central hotels are reasonable, everyday food from Noailles and the bakeries costs little, transport is inexpensive and the Calanques are free to walk.

Cannes is priced for a wealthy crowd, especially in summer and during the film festival and trade fairs. You can save with backstreet lunch menus, picnics from the Forville market, the public beaches, or a room in a neighbouring town.

Marseille has the deeper programme. There is a full opera season in its art deco house, serious drama at La Criée and contemporary work at the Friche la Belle de Mai. The city also has a real place in French hip-hop and Mediterranean music, and the Fiesta des Suds brings world music in autumn.

Cannes is famous for a film festival that is mostly closed to the public, though the free beach screenings let visitors share in it. Beyond that, the Palais des Festivals, the regional philharmonic, a respected dance festival and summer concerts in the castle courtyard on Le Suquet make a modest calendar.

Neither city is a wellness destination; the difference is mostly one of setting. Cannes has polished palace-hotel spas, seawater thalassotherapy along the coast and a calm seafront in spring and autumn, though August and festival weeks are loud.

Marseille has a few local hammams and the odd hotel spa in a dense, noisy city. Rest there means a long harbour lunch on the Corniche, and many visitors who want quiet stay in Cassis instead.