Cannes or Montpellier?

Cannes has its beach in the middle of town. The sand of the Croisette and the wide, mostly free Plage du Midi are a short walk from the centre, and the Lérins islands and the red-rock coves of the Esterel add clearer water and rocky swimming. Private concessions take up much of the frontage, but the choice of places to swim is real.

From Montpellier the sea is about 11km away by tram and bus. Once you are there, the long sands from Palavas past La Grande-Motte to the dunes of l'Espiguette are shallow and easy for swimmers. It is an open, flat coast with no coves or clear island water, though, so it suits a few beach days rather than a whole stay.

Cannes cooks from the Forville market, with bouillabaisse and socca in the bistros of Le Suquet and serious fine dining in the palace hotels and up in Mougins. Below that level, the Croisette and the old port serve a lot of expensive, predictable food, and the choice for everyday eating is narrow.

Montpellier eats better because it draws on a whole region: Pic Saint-Loup wines, oysters from the Thau lagoon, tielle from Sète, and market halls such as the Halles Laissac, where you can eat at the counters. Its students keep plenty of cheap bistros and casual places going, so a good meal is easier to find without hunting for it.

Cannes takes about a morning to see: the climb through Le Suquet to the castle museum and the church, the Belle Époque palace hotels along the Croisette, and a look at the steps of the Palais des Festivals. It is pleasant, but for serious art you take the train somewhere else.

Montpellier has two or three days' worth. The car-free Écusson with its courtyard mansions, the Peyrou terrace and its aqueduct, the medieval medical faculty and France's oldest botanical garden give it real historic depth. The Musée Fabre holds a genuine collection of European painting, and Bofill's Antigone district adds twentieth-century architecture that Cannes cannot match.

Cannes goes out mostly in summer and during festival weeks. Then the beach clubs on the Croisette become party venues and the streets behind the old port fill with cocktail bars. The style is champagne and dressing up, often at private events, and out of season the town goes to bed early.

Montpellier is livelier for more of the year, because its large student population fills the bars, pubs and wine bars around Place Jean-Jaurès on weeknights as well as weekends. The mood is young and casual rather than polished. Later on the crowd takes taxis out to clubs towards Lattes, and the centre goes quiet outside term time.

Both cities have fine country close by, but of very different kinds. Cannes looks to rock and sea: the volcanic red Esterel with trails to Pic de l'Ours, the pine paths of Sainte-Marguerite and the Cap d'Antibes footpath. Diving and kayaking around the islands fill the summer, and in winter there is skiing in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Around Montpellier it is wetlands and limestone: flamingos on the coastal lagoons, the Camargue about an hour away, the climb up Pic Saint-Loup and canoeing in the Hérault gorges near Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. The windy coast suits kitesurfing, and flat paths make cycling easy.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference lies in what you go out to see. From Cannes the coastal train runs past Antibes and its Picasso museum to Nice, Villefranche, Monaco and Menton. Add the hill villages of Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Èze and the perfume town of Grasse, and the outings are about art, glamour and sea views.

Montpellier's day trips lean towards history. Nîmes and the Pont du Gard, Roman Arles and papal Avignon are all about an hour or less away, with walled Carcassonne further west. Aigues-Mortes and Sète add salt marshes and a fishing port, though several of the smaller places need a car.

Cannes is easy with children rather than exciting. It has gently sloping sand, the flat Croisette with its carousels and picnics on the Lérins islands, but little in the town is made for children, and the nearest aquarium means a trip to Monaco.

Montpellier has a little more of its own. There is the Zoo de Lunaret in its wooded park, an aquarium and a planetarium side by side at Odysseum, and the Jardin des Plantes for running about. The trams are easy with a pushchair, though the beach is further away and the centre gets very hot in midsummer.

Cannes is compact and mostly flat, and everything central is within a twenty-minute walk, apart from the steep climb up Le Suquet. Its strength is the coastal train from a station in the middle of town, which makes Antibes, Nice and Monaco simple. The hill villages and the Esterel need a car, and that means heavy summer traffic.

Montpellier is easier to get around within the city. Trams link the station, the car-free Écusson, Antigone and Odysseum, bike-share helps on the flat parts, and fast trains run to Nîmes, Avignon and Carcassonne. The weak link is the beach, which is a slow tram and bus ride in summer.

Cannes is the better place to shop, mainly because of its luxury strip. The big Paris fashion and jewellery houses face the sea along the Croisette. Rue d'Antibes, one street back, has a long run of mid-range French fashion and chocolatiers, and Rue Meynadier sells olive oil, soaps and Provençal fabrics.

Montpellier has no luxury street. Its pleasures are the small boutiques, bookshops and wine shops in the lanes of the Écusson, with the Polygone mall and Odysseum for the big brands. The best things to take home are edible: local wine, honey and olive oil from the market halls.

Montpellier is the cheaper city. In Cannes the bill rises wherever there is a view of the bay: a terrace drink on the Croisette, a lounger on a private beach or a room facing the water. Rates climb again when the film festival and the big trade fairs fill the town. Spring and autumn outside event weeks are much easier on the purse, and so is a base in a cheaper town along the coast, with the train into Cannes.

Montpellier costs about what you would expect in Western Europe for most of the year. Its students keep plenty of casual counters and modest bars in business, and lunch menus stretch a day's spending further. Costs mount mainly at sit-down dinners with wine, and in July and August, when rooms in town and on the coast cost noticeably more.

The Cannes film festival is an industry event with accredited entry, so most visitors see it only through the free screenings on the beach. Beyond that there are touring shows at the Palais des Festivals, the regional philharmonic, a dance festival and summer concerts in the castle courtyard, which adds up to a modest programme for most of the year.

Montpellier has a real season. Opera, ballet and the city's national orchestra share the horseshoe Opéra Comédie and the Opéra Berlioz. Contemporary dance is its speciality, with the Montpellier Danse festival and a national choreographic centre. In summer the Radio France festival adds many free concerts and the Domaine d'O hosts outdoor theatre.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, and in both the pace does more for rest than the facilities do. Cannes has polished spas in its palace hotels and seawater thalassotherapy along the coast. Its seafront is calm in spring and autumn but noisy in August and during festival weeks.

Montpellier has real thermal water nearby, at Balaruc-les-Bains on the Thau lagoon about half an hour away, where day visitors are welcome. In town, rest means long lunches and shaded squares, though the student-filled centre is lively rather than quiet.