Carcassonne or Nice?

Nice has a real beach life and Carcassonne does not. The city's own pebble shore runs for about 7km below the promenade, with clear water. Sandy alternatives at Villefranche, Paloma and Juan-les-Pins are all reachable by bus or train.

Carcassonne is inland. You can swim at the Lac de la Cavayère, a lifeguarded lake a short drive away. The long sandy Mediterranean beaches at Gruissan and Narbonne-Plage are about an hour by car, which makes them a day out rather than the point of the trip.

Both have a strong regional identity, but Nice gives you more to eat. Its Ligurian-leaning cooking covers socca from wood ovens, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and daube. The Cours Saleya market is there most mornings, and family kitchens in Vieux Nice and around the port are good places to eat.

Carcassonne centres on cassoulet and on its wine. Corbières, Minervois and the sparkling blanquette of Limoux are the real pleasures. Eat in the Bastide around Place Carnot rather than inside the Cité, and expect little beyond southern French cooking.

These two are broadly level, but the culture is of different kinds. Carcassonne is one tremendous set piece: the double-walled Cité with its fifty-two towers, the Château Comtal and the stained glass of Saint-Nazaire, plus the gridded Bastide below. It has few museums, and two days covers it.

Nice spreads its interest wider. There is the Savoyard old town, the Belle Époque villas and the Russian Cathedral. Its real strength is art, with the Matisse Museum and Roman ruins in Cimiez, the Chagall Museum and MAMAC.

Nice is the livelier of the two after dark, though it is still a city of bars more than clubs. Vieux Nice fills with wine and cocktail bars spilling onto the lanes, and in summer the beach clubs and port keep people out late.

In Carcassonne the night out is a walk on the floodlit walls and a glass on a terrace around Place Carnot. Anyone wanting more drives to Toulouse or Montpellier.

Nice has the bigger outdoor range because the Alps meet the sea there. There are coastal paths round Cap Ferrat, cycling on the corniches, and diving and kayaking offshore. The Mercantour's high lakes and ibex are within about two hours, and in winter you can ski at Isola 2000.

Carcassonne's countryside is gentler but good. It has beech forest in the Montagne Noire, garrigue hills in the Corbières and rafting in the Aude gorges. The flat Canal du Midi towpath is ideal for cycling. Almost all of it needs a car.

Both make excellent bases, and Nice has the edge mainly because you can reach so much without driving. Monaco, Menton, Èze, Antibes, Cannes, Saint-Paul-de-Vence and even Sanremo across the Italian border are mostly within an hour. Each has a different character.

Carcassonne's outings are more rural. Peyrepertuse and Quéribus sit on their ridges, and there are the abbey at Lagrasse and Minerve above its gorges. Toulouse and Narbonne are easy by train, and Albi and Collioure are further out.

Neither city has a clear advantage for children, but they offer different things. In Carcassonne children walk the walls of a real castle and watch jousting and falconry in summer, with the lake beach, water park and animal park for days off. The steep cobbles inside the Cité defeat pushchairs.

Nice suits small children who need space to run. They get the flat promenade, the water jets and playgrounds of the Promenade du Paillon and Parc Phoenix. The pebbles are hard on small feet.

Nice is far easier to explore without a car. The centre is flat and walkable, a tram runs straight from the airport to the port, and buses climb to Cimiez. The coastal railway does the rest, and you only need a car for the mountains.

Carcassonne itself is small. From the station you cross the Pont Vieux to the Cité in under half an hour on foot. Beyond Toulouse and Narbonne, though, public transport fades, and most visitors hire a car.

Nice is the better place to shop, though it is still browsing rather than a shopping trip. Avenue Jean Médecin has the high-street names and the streets around rue Paradis have the fashion houses. Vieux Nice sells olive oil, Provençal fabrics and candied fruit, and on Mondays the Cours Saleya becomes a flea market.

Carcassonne offers Cité lanes of toy swords and a modest provincial high street. The best things to take home are wine, blanquette and tinned cassoulet.

Carcassonne is the cheaper stay, priced like a provincial southern town. Only hotels and restaurants inside the Cité walls charge a premium. Car hire is the main extra.

Nice costs noticeably more, above all for seafront rooms and beach loungers in summer. It claws some back with cheap trams and coastal trains, and some museums are cheap to enter. In both places spring and autumn are the easier seasons on the budget.

Nice has a year-round programme that Carcassonne lacks. The red-and-gold Opéra de Nice stages opera, ballet and Philharmonic concerts. The Théâtre National puts on French drama, and the Jazz Festival in July and Carnival in February are long-standing fixtures.

Carcassonne's high point is July. The Festival de Carcassonne puts concerts and theatre on an open-air stage inside the Cité walls, and the Bastille Day fireworks light up the walls. The rest of the year is thin.

Neither city is a spa destination. Nice offers a little more, with thalassotherapy centres along the coast and seafront hotel spas. Its calm comes from an early swim and an evening walk on the promenade.

Carcassonne's thermal waters are in small spa villages in the Aude valley, such as Rennes-les-Bains. Out of season, the town's calm comes from shaded canal walks and quiet ramparts at dusk.