Dijon or Paris?

Neither city is a beach destination. Dijon has Lac Kir, a reservoir on the western edge of town with a supervised lawn-and-sand bathing area. Paris turns stretches of its riverbanks into beaches in summer, and you can swim in the Bassin de la Villette and in the Seine itself.

The real difference is how easily you can get to the sea. From Paris, the Normandy coast around Deauville is about two hours by train. Dijon is several hours from any coast.

Dijon gives you Burgundy at its most concentrated: boeuf bourguignon, jambon persillé, Époisses from the stalls at Les Halles, village wines by the glass, and the city's own mustard and cassis. It does that one thing very well and offers little beyond it.

Paris has all of this and much more. It runs from zinc-counter bistros and the inventive neo-bistros of the eastern districts to haute cuisine and fine patisserie, with North African couscous in Belleville and Vietnamese pho in the south-east of the city. For variety and depth, Paris is well ahead, while Dijon is a specialist in its own region.

Dijon fills two or three good days. There is the palace of the dukes of Burgundy, the carved Valois tombs in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, and the gargoyles and lucky owl of Notre-Dame, all in a well-kept half-timbered centre without queues.

Paris is on another level. The Louvre alone could take a week, and the Orsay, the Sainte-Chapelle and a dozen other museums would each be the main attraction in a smaller city. All of it is set among Haussmann's boulevards, the old townhouses of the Marais and the UNESCO-listed Seine embankments.

Evenings in Dijon centre on the student bars of Rue Berbisey and the terraces around Place Émile Zola. A night out means wine, beer and a late dinner, and outside term time the streets are quiet by midnight.

Paris goes on much later and offers far more. You can start with a bottle on the Canal Saint-Martin, move on to the crowded bars of Oberkampf and Belleville or the cocktail bars of South Pigalle, then finish in house and techno clubs that stay open until dawn.

The two are on a par, and both offer gentle country rather than drama, but of different kinds. Dijon is closer to open country. The limestone combes on the western edge of town have trails and climbing cliffs, the canal towpath and the vineyard cycle route lead towards Beaune, and the granite hills of the Morvan are about an hour and a half away.

Paris offers parks and woods: the Buttes-Chaumont, the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes. The forest of Fontainebleau, with its sandstone boulders popular with climbers, is about forty minutes away by train. Paris suits a run through a formal garden, Dijon a day on a bike among the vines.

Day trips are one of Dijon's strengths. The Route des Grands Crus runs south to Beaune, and Fontenay Abbey and the ramparts of Semur-en-Auxois are to the north-west. Many of the wine villages, though, are only reachable by car, bike or tour.

Paris has even more within easy reach, and most of it by train: Versailles, Chartres, Giverny and Fontainebleau, and by fast train the Champagne houses of Reims, the old town of Rouen and the Loire châteaux from Tours. Paris gives breadth and easy access, while Dijon lets you explore one wine region in depth.

Dijon is safe, small and easy to walk with a pushchair. It has a planetarium in the Jardin de l'Arquebuse and paddling at Lac Kir, but little else is made for children, and its usual wine and fine-art itineraries are aimed at adults.

Paris has much more to fill the days: Disneyland and Parc Astérix, the Cité des Sciences, the Jardin d'Acclimatation, the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes and toy sailboats on the Luxembourg pond. The cost is everyday hassle, with stairs in the metro, crowded trains and small hotel rooms.

You can walk across Dijon's centre in minutes, and two tram lines reach the outskirts, but the wine villages away from the railway need a car, a bike or a tour. Paris is a great walking city on a much larger scale. A metro station is rarely far away and the RER runs to Versailles and the airports, although stairs and rush-hour crowds take some patience.

In Dijon you mostly shop for food and drink: mustard, pain d'épices, crème de cassis, cheese from Les Halles and bottles from the Burgundy wine merchants. Rue de la Liberté adds French chains and a department store.

Paris is worth the trip for its shops alone. It has the flagships of the great fashion houses on Avenue Montaigne, the department stores Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché, independent designers in the Marais, the covered passages and the vast Saint-Ouen flea market. Even for edible gifts, its specialist shops offer chocolate and tea as well as mustard and cheese.

Dijon is clearly the cheaper stay. Hotel rooms are moderately priced, bistro set lunches are good value and wine by the glass costs less than in most of France. Costs climb only with fine dining, cellar tastings and guided wine tours.

Paris costs much more, with small, expensive hotel rooms, pricey drinks on terraces and full-price museum tickets. Saving money there takes effort: bakeries, picnics by the Seine, the free permanent collections of the city's own museums and a room in the outer arrondissements.

The Opéra de Dijon stages opera, concerts and dance in the Grand Théâtre and the Auditorium, and the city also has a national drama centre and a venue for touring bands. That is a good season for a provincial city, though it thins out in summer.

Paris offers far more choice on any given night. There is the Palais Garnier with its ballet, the Opéra Bastille, the Philharmonie, chamber concerts in the Sainte-Chapelle, jazz cellars near the rue des Lombards and cabaret in Pigalle. Much of its theatre is in French, but its music and dance need no translation.

Neither city has thermal springs, but Paris offers more ways to be pampered. There is the tiled hammam of the Grande Mosquée, smaller neighbourhood hammams and a choice of luxury hotel spas and day spas.

Dijon has only a few hotel spas, some in the wine villages offering grape-based treatments. Its slow provincial pace is restful in its own way, while in Paris rest comes in short breaks between the crowds.