Cannes or Strasbourg?

There is no real contest here. Cannes has a long curve of fine sand on calm water. Private concessions line the Croisette, the Plage du Midi has plenty of free space, and the swimming is clearer off the Lérins islands or in the Esterel coves. It is a genuine beach destination from June to early October.

Strasbourg has no sea at all. People swim in summer in old gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which the tram reaches, with grassy banks and lifeguards in July and August. That makes a pleasant hot afternoon but not a reason to go.

Strasbourg has the stronger and more distinctive cooking. Alsatian food, from choucroute and baeckeoffe to tarte flambée and foie gras, has its own setting in the wood-panelled winstub and its own white wines from the vineyards to the south.

Cannes eats well at the Forville market and in the bistros of Le Suquet, with bouillabaisse, socca and rosé on a terrace. Still, few dishes are its own, and much of the waterfront serves dull food at high prices. Both have a fine-dining tier. In Cannes it is Provençal and based on the sea, while Strasbourg's rich dishes are at their best in winter.

Strasbourg is much better for sightseeing. Its UNESCO-listed centre runs from the pink sandstone cathedral and the half-timbered lanes of Petite France to the imperial avenues of the Neustadt. The Palais Rohan, the Oeuvre Notre-Dame and the modern art museum give two or three days of real depth.

Cannes has Le Suquet with its castle museum and church, the Belle Époque hotels on the Croisette and the film stars' handprints by the Palais des Festivals. That makes a pleasant morning, and anyone after serious art will head along the coast to Antibes or Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Neither is a place for big nights out, but the evenings feel very different. In summer and at festival time, Cannes's beach clubs turn into party venues, the mood is champagne and dressing up, and a few clubs stay open until dawn. Out of season the town goes quiet early.

Strasbourg's nights are led by its students and stay steady all year. There are bars and beer cellars in the Krutenau and around Place Saint-Étienne, and riverside terraces in summer, but few clubs and little going on after midnight.

Cannes has the more striking landscape on its doorstep. The red volcanic rock of the Esterel drops into the sea twenty minutes west, and the Lérins islands have paths through pine and eucalyptus. On the water there is sailing, kayaking and diving, and the pre-Alps lie further inland.

Strasbourg's outdoors is gentler and mostly further out. Flat cycling routes follow the Rhine and the canals, and the riverside forests have storks and beavers. The Vosges and the Black Forest are about an hour away and are easiest to reach by car.

Both are excellent bases, and Cannes has the slight edge for ease and variety. A single coastal train line links Antibes, Nice, Villefranche, Monaco and Menton, and the perched villages, Grasse and the island monastery are all close by.

Strasbourg's trips cover two countries. On one side are Colmar and the wine villages of the Alsace route, and across the Rhine are Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Heidelberg. The cities are easy by train, but the vineyard villages need a car or a bike.

Strasbourg gives children more to do in town. Boat trips around the Grande Ile, the storks and rowing boats in the Orangerie park, the hands-on science centre and the astronomical clock fill the days, and Europa-Park is about an hour away.

Cannes has the better beaches for small children, with gently sloping sand and calm water, as well as carousels along the Croisette and picnics on the islands. Apart from that, little is aimed at children, and the midsummer heat and crowds slow the days down.

Strasbourg is the easier city to get around without a car. Its island centre is largely pedestrianised, and trams reach the station, the European quarter and even Kehl across the Rhine. Separated bike lanes often make cycling the quickest way about.

Cannes's centre is compact and walkable too, apart from the steep climb up Le Suquet, and the coastal train is a real asset. The inland villages and the Esterel corniche are harder to reach, with heavy summer traffic and little parking.

Cannes has the better shopping. The luxury fashion and jewellery houses line the Croisette, Rue d'Antibes has a long run of mid-range French fashion, and Rue Meynadier sells olive oil, soaps and Provençal fabrics.

Strasbourg has almost no luxury or fashion of note. It is better for regional things to take home, such as Alsace wine, Soufflenheim pottery, printed linens and gingerbread, from the lanes near the cathedral.

Strasbourg is clearly easier on the wallet. It costs what a large French regional city costs, with good-value winstub meals, cheap trams and bike hire, and free sights. Rooms get more expensive during the Christmas market and the weeks when the European Parliament sits.

Cannes is expensive near the water, and much more so during the film festival and trade fairs. Picnics from Forville, the public beaches, lunch menus in the backstreets and staying in a cheaper neighbouring town all help keep costs down.

Strasbourg has the fuller programme all year. It has the Opéra national du Rhin, the Philharmonic, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the Musica festival of contemporary music, along with jazz, dance and touring bands.

Cannes is famous for a film festival that most visitors can only share through the free screenings on the beach. Beyond that it has concerts at the Palais des Festivals, a regional orchestra, a dance festival and summer concerts in the castle courtyard, with jazz at Juan-les-Pins nearby. The rest of the year there is little on.

Cannes offers pampering rather than a bathing culture. Unwinding there means booking a treatment in one of the palace hotels on the Croisette, with no public baths to fall back on. Its restful seasons are spring and autumn, when the bay is calm, while August and the festival weeks bring noise and crowds that make rest hard to find.

Strasbourg is the better place to slow down. Anyone can use the city's early twentieth-century bathhouse, with its pool, hammam and saunas, and the thermal baths of Baden-Baden are less than an hour away across the Rhine. Its crowds come at a different time of year. Summer here suits unhurried cycling along the river, and it is December, when the Christmas market fills the centre, that breaks the peace.