Carcassonne or Montpellier?

Neither city is on the sea, but Montpellier lives much closer to it. Palavas-les-Flots and Carnon are about 11km away by tram and bus, and the sand runs on to the dunes of l'Espiguette and the lagoon-backed beaches of Sète. That makes an afternoon swim easy after a morning in town.

From Carcassonne the everyday option is the Lac de la Cavayère, a lifeguarded reservoir with sandy shores. The Mediterranean at Gruissan or Narbonne-Plage is an hour's drive, so a beach day there takes planning.

Both cities cook Languedoc food, but Montpellier has more range and more of the sea in it. Thau lagoon shellfish, octopus tielle and brandade sit alongside Pic Saint-Loup wines, and the Halles Laissac and the Arceaux market give you good places to graze. The student population also keeps casual places plentiful.

Carcassonne is narrower and heavier: cassoulet everywhere, with good Corbières, Minervois and Limoux blanquette to drink with it. The best meals are down in the Bastide around Place Carnot rather than among the set menus inside the Cité walls.

These two are about level, but the experience differs. Carcassonne is a single overwhelming monument: the double-walled Cité with its fifty-two towers, Viollet-le-Duc's restored roofs, the basilica's Gothic glass and the Canal du Midi below. Away from the Cité, though, museums are few.

Montpellier spreads its interest across a whole city. There are the courtyards of the Écusson, the Peyrou terrace and aqueduct, the oldest botanical garden in France and Bofill's Antigone, and the Musée Fabre's paintings give it the art collection Carcassonne lacks.

This is one of the widest gaps between them. Montpellier's student crowd fills the bars around Place Jean-Jaurès on weeknights too, and later the night moves on to clubs towards Lattes and the coast.

Carcassonne goes quiet once the day visitors leave. A few wine bars, terraces around Place Carnot and a stroll on the lit walls are the evening, and anyone wanting a club tends to head to Montpellier or Toulouse.

Montpellier has the more varied outdoors close at hand. Flamingos stand in the étangs just south of the city and the Camargue is about an hour away. To the north, Pic Saint-Loup offers a summit climb and the Hérault gorges are good for canoeing, while the windy coast adds kitesurfing.

Carcassonne's countryside is wilder and more remote. There is the Montagne Noire's beech forest, the Corbières garrigue with castle ruins on the ridges, and gorges and rafting towards the Pyrenees. Apart from the canal towpath, nearly all of it needs a car.

Both are excellent bases, and Montpellier is the stronger one, mostly because its best trips go by train. Roman Nîmes is half an hour away, and Arles and Avignon about an hour, with Sète, Aigues-Mortes and Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert closer still.

Carcassonne's region is just as rewarding: Peyrepertuse and Quéribus on their limestone ridges, Lagrasse, Minerve and the wine estates. Apart from Toulouse and Narbonne, however, almost all of it needs a car.

Montpellier is the easier city with children. The pedestrian old town and pushchair-friendly trams help, gently shelving beaches are close by, and the Lunaret zoo, aquarium and planetarium give you options for rainy or very hot afternoons.

Carcassonne has the bigger single thrill: a real castle with drawbridges, plus jousting and falconry in summer, and the lake with its water park. However, the steep cobbles are hard with a pushchair and the summer crowds are heavy.

Both towns are walkable, but Montpellier also has a tram network linking the station, the Écusson, Antigone and Odysseum, plus bike-share and fast trains to Nîmes, Avignon and Arles. You only need a car for the hills and the Camargue.

In Carcassonne you get around on foot: the flat Bastide, then a twenty-five minute walk up to the Cité, with a seasonal shuttle. Beyond the town, public transport thins out quickly, and most visitors end up hiring a car.

Montpellier offers ordinary city shopping, done pleasantly. There are boutiques, bookshops and delicatessens in the Écusson lanes, plus the Polygone and Odysseum for the big brands.

In Carcassonne, the Cité's lanes mostly sell plastic swords and Cathar trinkets, and the Bastide high street is modest. In both places the best things to take home are edible, cassoulet and blanquette in one and olive oil and Pic Saint-Loup wine in the other.

The two cost much the same, with Carcassonne a touch cheaper, but the costs fall in different places. In Carcassonne, the Cité is the trap: hotels and restaurants inside the walls charge a premium, while the Bastide is reasonable. Car hire is the extra cost most visitors face there.

In Montpellier, student bars and market halls keep everyday spending low and the tram means you don't need a car, but restaurant dinners and summer rooms on the coast add up.

Montpellier has a proper year-round stage. Opera, ballet and the national orchestra play at the Opéra Comédie and the Corum, and Montpellier Danse is one of Europe's respected contemporary dance festivals. In summer the Radio France festival and the Printemps des Comédiens add more.

Carcassonne's arts life is concentrated in July. The Festival de Carcassonne puts headline shows in the open-air theatre inside the walls, and there are Bastille Day fireworks over the ramparts. For the rest of the year it offers little.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and Montpellier is only a little better placed. Balaruc-les-Bains on the Thau lagoon is a real spa town half an hour away, but the city centre itself is lively rather than restful.

Carcassonne's small thermal villages in the upper Aude are modest and local. Its calm comes instead from quiet spring and autumn days, long lunches and the shaded Canal du Midi towpath.