Carcassonne or Valencia?

Carcassonne is an inland town, so swimming means the lifeguarded Lac de la Cavayère just outside town, or a drive of about an hour to the long sands of Gruissan and Narbonne-Plage, where the tramontane can make the sea choppy. That makes a pleasant day out, but not a beach vacation.

In Valencia the beach is part of the city. Las Arenas and Malvarrosa are about twenty minutes from the centre, with shallow, calm water and room to spread out. If you want something wilder, the dunes of El Saler lie south of the port, backed by pine woods.

Both cities are built around one famous dish, cassoulet in one and paella in the other, but Valencia's table is far broader. In Carcassonne the best eating is down in the Bastide around Place Carnot rather than in the set-menu restaurants of the Cité, and Corbières reds and Limoux blanquette are the real strength. Beyond southern French cooking there is little choice.

Valencia offers a whole family of rice dishes, eel stew in the Albufera villages, horchata in the old parlours of Alboraya, and the Mercado Central, one of Europe's great food halls. Ruzafa adds tapas, vermouth and creative kitchens, so a week of meals never repeats itself.

Carcassonne has one extraordinary set piece: the fifty-two towers of La Cité, with the Château Comtal ramparts and the stained glass of Saint-Nazaire, plus the arcaded grid of the Bastide below. Once you have seen these, there are only a few small museums left.

Valencia gives you more to see, and from more periods. The Gothic Lonja de la Seda, the cathedral with its Grail chalice and the medieval Serranos and Quart gates sit a short walk apart. Add the ceramics museum, the Bellas Artes and IVAM, and at the far end of the old riverbed the white, futuristic City of Arts and Sciences.

Carcassonne's evenings are for a slow walk on the floodlit walls once the day visitors have gone, followed by a glass of wine on a terrace or a drink with locals around Place Carnot. Anyone after a real night out goes to Toulouse or Montpellier.

Valencia goes out late in the Spanish way. Ruzafa's cocktail and wine bars stay busy past midnight, El Carmen has older bars with a student crowd, and in summer the open-air venues near Malvarrosa and the port keep going until dawn. During Fallas in March, whole neighbourhoods party in the street.

The two are close here, but the landscapes could hardly differ more. Carcassonne sits between uplands: the beech forests and gorges of the Montagne Noire, the garrigue ridges of the Corbières, and the rafting gorges of the upper Aude. It is real hiking country, but you need a car to reach it.

Valencia's nature is flat and watery. Boats cross the Albufera lagoon at sunset among herons and rice fields, trails run through the pine dunes of the Devesa, and the Turia gardens carry cyclists right through the city. Hills and the climbing gorge at Chulilla are a drive inland.

Carcassonne has the slightly richer hinterland. The Cathar castles of Peyrepertuse, Quéribus and Lastours, abbey villages such as Lagrasse, Minerve on its rock and the Corbières wine estates make several days of outings with a single strong theme. Most of them need a car, although Toulouse and Narbonne are easy by train.

Valencia's outings are more varied and easier without a car. Trains reach the Roman theatre at Sagunto, the ridge castle of Xàtiva and, by high-speed rail, Cuenca's hanging houses. Peñíscola and the palm grove of Elche take longer.

Children love Carcassonne's storybook castle, with drawbridges, ramparts, and jousting and falconry in summer, and the lake beach and animal park fill another day. The town is steep and cobbled, though, which is hard with pushchairs, and the Cité is packed and hot in high summer.

Valencia keeps a family busy much longer. It has the Oceanogràfic's sharks and belugas, the hands-on science museum, the Bioparc and the giant Gulliver playground in the Turia gardens. Add shallow city beaches and a flat centre, and it is much the easier city with small children.

Carcassonne is easy on foot, from the flat Bastide by the station up the climb across the Pont Vieux to the Cité. Beyond town, though, public transport hardly reaches the castles and villages, so a hire car or a tour is close to essential.

Valencia works well without a car. The centre is flat, bike lanes and the Turia gardens make cycling a natural way to get around, and the metro and tram reach the airport, the port and the beaches.

Carcassonne has little worth shopping for: the Cité's lanes sell toy swords and Cathar trinkets, and the Bastide has an ordinary provincial high street. The best things to bring home are tinned cassoulet, wine and blanquette.

Valencia gives you a proper city's choice, with chains and luxury boutiques around Calle Colón and vintage and design shops in El Carmen and Ruzafa. Local crafts include ceramics from Manises, hand-painted fans and silk, and saffron and turrón come from the Mercado Central.

Overall costs are much the same, and the difference lies in where the money goes. In Carcassonne, the cheap wine and lunchtime set menus are offset by car hire for almost every outing and the premium charged for hotels and meals inside the walls.

In Valencia the set lunch is a fixture of daily life and cheap transport means you need no car. Instead, prices peak near the beach in summer and rise sharply during Fallas in March.

Carcassonne's stage life is concentrated in July, when the festival puts concerts and theatre in the open-air theatre inside the Cité walls, and the Bastille Day fireworks light up the ramparts. For the rest of the year the municipal theatre offers only a modest programme.

Valencia has a full season. There is opera and ballet at the Palau de les Arts with its own orchestra, concerts at the Palau de la Música by the Turia, and jazz in Ruzafa. During Fallas you hear the region's village wind bands everywhere.

Neither city has a living bathing culture. Carcassonne's calm comes from its pace outside summer, with canal walks and quiet evenings on the walls, and the modest old spa villages of Rennes-les-Bains and Alet-les-Bains are an hour's drive away.

Valencia makes relaxing easier. It has Arab-style bath houses and hotel spas within the city, the seafront promenade for slow evening walks, shady Turia paths, and mild weather that stretches the easy pace through most of the year.