Dijon or Nice?

This is where the two cities are furthest apart. Dijon is hours from any coast, and its only open-air swimming is the supervised bathing lawn at Lac Kir, which is fine for a hot afternoon but not the reason for a trip.

Nice has about 7km of shore right below the promenade, with clear water you can swim in from early summer to autumn. The pebbles call for a lounger or water shoes, and for sand and calmer water you can take a short bus or train to Villefranche or Juan-les-Pins.

Both are very good places to eat, but in different ways. Dijon serves rich Burgundian cooking at the table: boeuf bourguignon, snails, Époisses from the stalls of Les Halles, and village wines poured by the glass from vineyards just south of town.

Nice eats lighter and more outdoors, leaning towards Liguria with socca hot from wood ovens, pissaladière and stuffed vegetables, bought from the Cours Saleya market. Dijon is better for wine and classic French cooking, Nice for simple street food, as long as you avoid the tourist terraces on the promenade.

Each is worth two or three days of sightseeing, but from different eras. Dijon is a medieval capital, with the Valois tombs and their carved mourners in the ducal palace, Sluter's Well of Moses, and half-timbered lanes around Notre-Dame and its lucky owl.

Nice is at its best for modern art: Matisse in Cimiez, Chagall's biblical cycle and the Yves Klein rooms at MAMAC. Around these sit the Italianate old town and the Belle Époque villas and the Russian cathedral from the city's days as a winter resort.

Nice has the livelier evenings. The lanes of Vieux Nice fill with bars that spill into the street, the port adds a few calmer places, and in summer the promenade and beach clubs keep going late.

Dijon's nights depend on its students: the bars along Rue Berbisey and the terraces near Place Émile Zola, mostly wine and beer after a late dinner, and quiet streets by midnight out of term. Neither city is for clubbing. On the Riviera, people go to Monaco or Cannes for that.

In Nice the Alps come down to the sea. You get coastal paths around Cap Ferrat, corniche roads for cyclists, the red rocks of the Esterel and the high lakes of the Mercantour, and in winter you can ski at Isola 2000 and be back by the sea the same day. Diving, kayaking and sailing are easy to arrange as well.

Dijon's countryside is gentler. There are climbing cliffs and trails in the combes just west of town, a flat canal towpath, the signed vineyard cycle route to Beaune and the granite hills of the Morvan. It is pleasant for easy walks and rides, but it has no drama.

Both make excellent bases, but Nice has more variety and needs less planning. Monaco, Èze, Antibes, Cannes, Grasse, Saint-Paul-de-Vence and even Sanremo across the Italian border are all reachable by train or bus, mostly in under an hour.

Dijon's trips are more focused, mostly wine country and Cistercian heritage. Beaune is an easy train ride, but Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot, Meursault and Fontenay Abbey are much easier with a car, a bike or a small tour.

Nice gives children more to do. The water jets and playgrounds of the Promenade du Paillon, the plants and animals of Parc Phoenix, the waterfall on Castle Hill and the sea itself fill several days. The pebbles and summer heat are the main drawbacks.

Dijon is safe and easy, with a small pedestrian centre, a planetarium in the Jardin de l'Arquebuse and paddling at Lac Kir. After that, though, most of the trip is tastings and fine-art museums, which interest parents more than children.

Neither city needs a car. Dijon is the smaller of the two: the station, market, palace and cathedral are minutes apart on foot, two tram lines cover the outskirts, and the TGV reaches Paris in well under two hours.

Nice's centre is a flat half-hour walk end to end. Its tram runs straight from the airport to the port, and the coastal trains take you to Monaco and Cannes, though they get packed in summer. In each city, a car only becomes useful for the countryside: Dijon's wine villages away from the railway, and Nice's mountains.

Nice offers more shops. There are chains and Galeries Lafayette on Avenue Jean Médecin, luxury labels around rue Paradis, Provençal soaps and olive oil in the old town, and a Monday antiques market on the Cours Saleya.

Dijon's shopping is mostly for the larder: mustard in dozens of flavours, cassis, pain d'épices, Burgundy from the wine merchants and cheese from Les Halles. Rue de la Liberté covers the basics, but there is little for anyone after fashion.

Dijon is the cheaper stay. Hotel rooms are moderate, bistro lunch menus are fair, and wine costs less than in most of France. The bill only climbs with serious restaurants, guided tours and good bottles.

Nice is expensive for southern Europe, especially for sea-view rooms and beach loungers between June and September. Its cheap trams and coastal trains, low-cost city museums and socca help, and spring or late autumn are much easier on the budget.

The two are on a par, but their seasons fall at different times of year. Dijon's Opéra uses the old Grand Théâtre and the Auditorium, known for its acoustics, and the programme follows the academic year before thinning to outdoor events in summer.

Nice has its red-and-gold opera house and its national theatre, but its biggest moments are fixed events: the Carnival in February and the long-running Nice Jazz Festival in July. In summer Nice has the more to offer, and the rest of the year the two are similar.

Nice has a little more for anyone who wants pampering. There are spas in the big seafront hotels, thalassotherapy centres along the coast, and the simple pleasure of an early swim and an evening stroll on the promenade, though high summer is far from calm.

Dijon has only a few hotel spas, some offering grape-based treatments. Its restfulness comes from long lunches, quiet squares and slow afternoons among the vines rather than from any treatment.