Carcassonne or Lyon?

Neither is a beach destination, but Carcassonne has the easier water. The Lac de la Cavayère, a short drive from the Cité, has sandy shores and lifeguards in summer. The long, shallow beaches of Gruissan and Narbonne-Plage are about an hour away by car, close enough for a day on the Mediterranean.

Lyon is three hours from the sea. Its own swimming is the bathing lake at Miribel-Jonage on the edge of the city. Beyond that you need a longer outing to the clear Alpine water of Lake Annecy or the Lac du Bourget, which is lovely but takes a full day.

Lyon is one of France's great eating cities, while Carcassonne is a good place for one famous dish. In Lyon you could eat for a week without repeating yourself: bouchons, a fine-dining tradition going back to the Mères lyonnaises, Les Halles Paul Bocuse and the Sunday markets along the Saône, with Beaujolais and northern Rhône wine on the table.

Carcassonne has cassoulet, honest bistros and very good cheap local wine, from Corbières reds to Limoux blanquette. The range is narrow, though, and the set menus inside the Cité are hit and miss, so eat down in the Bastide around Place Carnot.

Carcassonne has the more striking single sight: the double ring of walls and towers of the Cité, with the Château Comtal and the stained glass of Saint-Nazaire. Add the Bastide's grid of streets and the Canal du Midi, and two days covers it all, since museums are few.

Lyon has far more depth, covering two thousand years. There are the Roman theatres on Fourvière, the Renaissance lanes and traboules of Vieux Lyon, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the silk-weavers' hill of Croix-Rousse and the Institut Lumière. It lacks one iconic landmark but easily fills several full days.

Lyon offers a real night out, which Carcassonne largely does not. Students fill the wine and cocktail bars of the Presqu'île and the pubs of Vieux Lyon. The péniches moored on the Rhône turn into bars and clubs, and warehouse clubs towards Gerland keep electronic music going late at weekends.

In Carcassonne, evenings mean a walk on the floodlit walls and a glass on a terrace around Place Carnot. Anyone after clubs has to go to Toulouse or Montpellier.

Carcassonne's countryside is drier and wilder: beech and chestnut forest in the Montagne Noire, garrigue and Cathar ruins across the Corbières, and the Aude gorges for rafting in summer. Beyond the shaded Canal du Midi towpath, though, almost all of it needs a car, and the summer heat and wind leave walking for spring and autumn.

Lyon comes out ahead overall. Without a car you can run or cycle along the car-free Rhône quays and take a boat out on the lake in the Parc de la Tête d'Or, and the Monts d'Or and Beaujolais hills are close for walks and rides. With a car, the Chartreuse and Vercors offer serious hiking and climbing about an hour away, and the high Alps are around two hours off.

Both are excellent bases, with different themes. Carcassonne's trips are about castles and stone villages: Peyrepertuse and Quéribus high on their ridges, Lastours, Minerve on its rock and the abbey at Lagrasse. Toulouse and Narbonne are easy by train, but most of the rest needs a car.

Lyon's trips are about wine and towns, and more of them work by train. Roman Vienne is twenty minutes south, with medieval Pérouges, the Beaujolais villages, Cluny and Beaune nearby. Annecy and the Alpine lakes are further out.

Lyon is the easier city for several days with children. There is the Tête d'Or park with its free zoo, pedalos and little train, dinosaurs at the Musée des Confluences, Guignol puppet shows and funiculars to ride, all from a flat centre you can walk.

Carcassonne makes the bigger first impression: a real castle with ramparts and jousting in summer, plus the lake beach and an animal park. But the Cité is steep, cobbled and crowded in midsummer, and after a day or two families depend on the car.

Carcassonne itself is small and easy. The station sits by the canal at the edge of the flat Bastide, and the Cité is a walk across the Pont Vieux and up the hill. Beyond the town, the castles, villages and vineyards are poorly served by public transport, so a hire car is close to essential.

Lyon is far simpler to manage without a car. Metro, trams, funiculars and buses share one ticket, the bike-share and riverside paths make cycling easy, and the flat Presqu'île is pleasant on foot.

Lyon can give you an afternoon of proper shopping and Carcassonne cannot. Lyon has chain stores on rue de la République, luxury labels around Place des Jacobins and the large Part-Dieu mall. More unusual finds are the silk scarves and the designer workshops on the slopes of Croix-Rousse.

In Carcassonne, the Cité's lanes sell plastic swords and Cathar trinkets, and the Bastide high street is modest. Its best souvenirs come from the Place Carnot market and the wine shops: tinned cassoulet and a bottle of blanquette.

Carcassonne is the cheaper stay. Rooms in the Bastide and along the canal are moderately priced outside July and August, wine costs little and you can walk everywhere in town. Staying or eating inside the Cité walls costs more, though, and most visitors also pay for a hire car.

Lyon is reasonable for a large city rather than cheap. Rooms become scarce and expensive during big trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières. Its best value is at lunchtime, in the set menus of the bouchons.

Lyon has a year-round stage life that Carcassonne cannot match. There is the Opéra with its own ballet company, the Orchestre National at the Auditorium, the old Théâtre des Célestins, and the Maison de la Danse in a city known above all for dance. In summer, the Nuits de Fourvière festival stages shows in the Roman theatres.

Carcassonne's big moments are the July festival in the open-air theatre inside the Cité and the Bastille Day fireworks over the walls. Outside summer there is little beyond the municipal theatre.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and in both the restful side comes more from the pace of life than from spas. Lyon has a little more within reach: hammams, day spas, the open-air pool on the Rhône quays and quiet Sunday mornings by the Saône. For proper thermal baths, Aix-les-Bains is a day out.

Carcassonne has hotel spas and the small old spa villages of the upper Aude, such as Rennes-les-Bains. How calm it feels depends on the season: walks along the canal are peaceful in spring and autumn, but in midsummer the Cité is crowded.