Cardiff or Lille?

Cardiff at least has the seaside within reach. Barry Island's sandy bay and funfair are about half an hour by train, and Penarth's pebbles and pier are next door. Porthcawl's surf and the Gower's wide sands are a drive of an hour or more.

Lille is inland. Its nearest sand is the windy North Sea beach at Dunkirk, an hour away, and the Opal Coast dunes are further still, so the sea becomes a full day out rather than an afternoon. In both places the water stays cool even in August.

Lille eats better, and its food has more local character. Beer-braised carbonnade, potjevleesch and Maroilles cheese fill the estaminets of Vieux-Lille, specialist beer bars are part of every evening, and the Sunday market at Wazemmes is worth planning around.

Cardiff's Welsh dishes, such as cawl, laverbread and griddle-cooked Welsh cakes in the Victorian market, are easier to sample than to make a meal of. Its better tables are in the bistros of Pontcanna and Canton and the Middle Eastern and South Asian cooking along City Road.

Lille has the deeper sights. The Palais des Beaux-Arts, with its Flemish masters and relief maps, is among France's largest art museums outside Paris, and Vieux-Lille's Flemish baroque streets are much older than most of Cardiff. La Piscine and the LaM modern art museum add more art a metro or tram ride away.

Cardiff's strengths are different: a castle in the city centre with lavish Victorian Gothic rooms, Impressionists at the National Museum and St Fagans' open-air collection of rebuilt Welsh buildings. It is largely a Victorian city, while Lille gives you centuries of townscape.

The two are fairly evenly matched, and both are student-heavy cities that go out hard. Cardiff's big nights are weekends, with crowds along St Mary Street, the whole centre in red on rugby international days, and alternative bars on Womanby Street.

Lille's busiest night is Thursday, when Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino fill with student bars, while Vieux-Lille's beer and cocktail cellars suit a quieter evening. Neither has a strong club scene, though from Lille the serious late nights are just over the Belgian border.

This is where Cardiff pulls well ahead. Bute Park leads straight onto the Taff Trail up the valley, and the Brecon Beacons, with Pen y Fan's open ridges, are about an hour by car. Closer in, there are the coast-path cliffs at Penarth and the Vale of Glamorgan.

Around Lille, French Flanders is flat and farmed. The Citadel park and the canal towpaths are pleasant for cycling, and the low Monts de Flandre give short walks. Real scenery means a long day out to the chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez.

Both cities make good bases, but Lille's position is exceptional. Brussels is about half an hour by fast train, Ghent and Bruges about an hour, and Paris about an hour by TGV. Closer to home there are Arras' arcaded squares, Amiens Cathedral and the First World War battlefields around Ypres and the Somme.

Cardiff's outings are more regional and centre on castles: Caerphilly by train, Castell Coch in the woods, and Chepstow with Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley. Bath and Bristol are about an hour away, and the mining heritage at Blaenavon is within reach too.

Cardiff is a little easier with children. Techniquest and the boat trips at Cardiff Bay, the farm animals and craft demonstrations at St Fagans, Roath Park's rowing boats and Barry Island's funfair are all close by, and much of it is free.

Lille's family day centres on the Citadel park, with its small zoo, playgrounds and flat paths for scooters, plus a science centre reached by metro. Its bigger draws, such as Pairi Daiza and the Nausicaá aquarium, are away from the city, and the cobbles of Vieux-Lille are hard work with a pushchair.

Both centres are flat and easy to walk, but Lille is better connected. Its two main stations sit side by side near the old town, and the automated VAL metro and the tram reach Roubaix and Tourcoing, so you will not miss a car.

Cardiff has no metro. The walk out to Cardiff Bay takes about half an hour, or you can take a shuttle train, bus or water taxi. Local trains serve Penarth and Caerphilly well, but the Brecon Beacons and remoter castles need a car.

Lille has the better shopping. Vieux-Lille's narrow streets hold independent fashion, design shops, delicatessens and a few luxury labels, and the Braderie at the start of September turns the whole city into a vast flea market.

Cardiff is mostly a high-street city. Its charm is the glass-roofed Victorian and Edwardian arcades, lined with record shops, bookshops and vintage clothing, plus Welsh lovespoons and woollen blankets to take home. Most people cover it in an afternoon.

The two cost about the same, with ordinary British prices in one and ordinary French city prices in the other. Where you save is different. In Cardiff it is the free national museums, St Fagans included, and short train rides to the coast and castles.

In Lille it is fairly priced estaminet meals and beer and a cheap metro. Both get expensive at peak times: in Cardiff when the stadium hosts a rugby international or a big concert, and in Lille during the Braderie and the major trade fairs.

The two have similarly solid programmes, built on different things. Cardiff's anchor is the Wales Millennium Centre, home to Welsh National Opera. It also has a grassroots band scene in the small venues around Womanby Street, a tradition of choral singing and stadium-sized concerts in the city centre.

Lille is more classical and theatrical. It has a grand opera house on the Place du Théâtre, a national orchestra, the Théâtre du Nord as one of France's national theatres and contemporary dance in Roubaix and Tourcoing.

Neither city is a place to come for rest. In both, relaxing means hotel spas and slow café mornings, in Pontcanna or along the Taff in Cardiff and on the tea-room terraces of Vieux-Lille. Lille does have a real thermal bath a short train ride away at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, which Cardiff cannot match.