Carcassonne or Lausanne?

Neither city is on the sea, and swimming is a summer extra in both, but the water is quite different. From Carcassonne you drive a short way to the sandy, lifeguarded shores of the Lac de la Cavayère, or about an hour to the long Mediterranean sands at Gruissan and Narbonne-Plage.

Lausanne swims in its own front yard. You go into Lake Geneva from lawns, piers and pebbles at Vidy or the old Bellerive lido, which is easy on foot but has no real beach and a short season.

Lausanne has more range. Its Vaudois cooking runs from lake perch and papet to winter fondue, the Saturday market fills the old town, and it has a tier of celebrated fine dining that Carcassonne lacks. Budget meals are its weak spot.

Carcassonne rests on cassoulet and southern French bistro cooking, and the best of it is in the Bastide around Place Carnot rather than inside the Cité walls. Both towns pour excellent local wine, though: Lavaux Chasselas in Lausanne, and Corbières, Minervois and Limoux blanquette in Carcassonne.

Carcassonne has the more striking single sight. La Cité, with its double ring of towered walls, the Château Comtal ramparts and the stained glass of Saint-Nazaire, is a monument people cross Europe to see, and the grid streets of the Bastide and the Canal du Midi add to it. Beyond that, its museums are slight.

Lausanne's strength is the reverse. Its Gothic cathedral, with the night watchman still calling the hours, anchors a compact old town, but the Olympic Museum, the Plateforme 10 cluster and the Collection de l'Art Brut give it the museum depth Carcassonne does not have.

Lausanne is the place for a night out. The Flon's converted warehouses hold clubs and late bars that a large student population keeps busy at weekends, and in summer the evening crowds move down to Ouchy.

Carcassonne's evenings are about a floodlit stroll on the walls and a drink on Place Carnot, and serious nightlife means a trip to Toulouse.

Lausanne has much the grander setting. The French Alps rise across the lake, the Lavaux terraces make a famous vineyard walk, and the Vaud Alps and the Jura, with skiing, glacier trips and long ridge hikes, are within an hour, mostly by train.

Carcassonne's country is drier and lower. It has the Montagne Noire forests, garrigue and Cathar ridges in the Corbières, and summer rafting in the Aude gorges. The plane-shaded Canal du Midi towpath is the easy option, but nearly everything else needs a car and is best in spring or autumn.

Carcassonne is a fine base for days out, but Lausanne is the better one. Around Carcassonne you have Peyrepertuse and Quéribus on their limestone ridges, the abbey at Lagrasse, Minerve above its gorges and Albi's brick cathedral, with Corbières wine estates in between. Apart from Toulouse and Narbonne, though, you have to drive yourself to all of them.

Lausanne offers more places and an easier way of reaching them. Trains and lake boats take you to Montreux, the Château de Chillon, Gruyères, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva and across the water to Évian without any planning, and Neuchâtel and Murten add more. Only a few outings, Annecy among them, really need a car.

Lausanne has more to fill a family week. There is the hands-on Olympic Museum, the aquarium-vivarium, Sauvabelin's animal park and lookout tower, and paddle steamer trips on the lake. Eating out with children is very expensive, though.

Carcassonne's draw is a real castle with drawbridges, plus summer jousting and falconry. It carries a day or two, after which you add the lake, the kangaroo park and car outings. In both towns, steep streets are hard going with a pushchair.

Lausanne is steep but well connected. The m2 metro climbs from the lakeshore to the upper town, buses and boats fill the gaps, and the Swiss rail network takes you almost anywhere in the region.

Carcassonne's flat Bastide and the walk over the Pont Vieux up to the Cité are easy on foot. The castles, villages and vineyards beyond are poorly served by public transport, so most visitors hire a car.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Lausanne has more. Rue de Bourg has watchmakers, jewellers and chocolatiers, and the Flon has a few design shops.

Carcassonne offers souvenir swords in the Cité and a modest high street in the Bastide. Its best buys are edible: tinned cassoulet, blanquette and wine from the market on Place Carnot.

This is where the two differ most. Carcassonne costs what a provincial southern French town costs. Only the hotels and restaurants inside the Cité, and the peak of July and August, push prices up, and car hire is the main extra.

Lausanne is expensive in every respect, from rooms to taxis to a glass of wine. A budget stay there means supermarket picnics, free lakeside promenades and saving restaurant meals for special occasions.

Lausanne has a stage life all year that Carcassonne cannot approach. It has the Béjart Ballet, the Prix de Lausanne competition, contemporary theatre at Vidy, a full opera season and a respected chamber orchestra, and the Montreux Jazz Festival is a short train ride away in July.

Carcassonne comes alive mainly in July, when its festival puts concerts and theatre on the open-air stage inside the Cité walls. Bastille Day fireworks over the ramparts are its other big moment.

Lausanne is better set up for pampering. The grand lakeside hotels have full spas, and the thermal centres at Yverdon-les-Bains and Lavey-les-Bains are easy train trips.

Carcassonne's thermal villages in the upper Aude are small local places. Its restfulness comes instead from long lunches, the Canal du Midi towpath and quiet evenings on the walls outside high summer.