Dijon or Stuttgart?

Neither city is a beach destination. Both lie hours from any coast, so this is not a reason to pick either.

The difference is small but practical. Dijon has Lac Kir, a reservoir with a supervised lawn-and-sand bathing area where you can actually swim in summer. Stuttgart's lake is for boating rather than bathing, so swimming there means the outdoor pools, some of them fed by mineral springs, or a trip of more than two hours to Lake Constance.

Dijon has the stronger reputation for food. It sits at the head of Burgundy, so boeuf bourguignon, snails, jambon persillé, Époisses and Bresse poultry are all local, along with the city's own mustard, pain d'épices and cassis. Les Halles is the centre of it all on market days, and the grand cru villages next door mean you can try wines by the glass that are rarely sold that way anywhere else.

Stuttgart's Swabian cooking is just as distinctive, but heartier and less celebrated: Maultaschen, Käsespätzle and Zwiebelrostbraten in wine taverns, with Trollinger from vineyards inside the city limits. Its seasonal Besen taverns, which growers open in their own homes, are a charming local tradition. Both cities have a serious fine-dining tier and not much international variety.

The two are about equal for sightseeing, but the history is very different. Dijon is a medieval ducal capital, with the palace, the Valois tombs in one of France's oldest museums, half-timbered streets, the gargoyles and lucky owl of Notre-Dame, and Sluter's Well of Moses.

Stuttgart's sights are modern and industrial: the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, the Staatsgalerie and its postmodern wing, and Le Corbusier's houses at the Weissenhof Estate. Wartime bombing left only pockets of the old city, around Schlossplatz. Choose Dijon for walking through an intact old town and Stuttgart for design and engineering.

Neither city is a big night out, but Stuttgart has more going on. Theodor-Heuss-Strasse fills with bars and lounges at weekends, clubs in basements and old industrial spaces cater to electronic music fans, and the Cannstatter Volksfest beer tents and the summer wine village bring real crowds.

Dijon's evenings are smaller and depend on the students. Expect wine bars and pubs along Rue Berbisey and terraces around Place Émile Zola, with a late dinner as the main event. Outside term time things are usually quiet by midnight.

Stuttgart offers more outdoors. Wooded hills and vineyard trails start at the edge of its basin, the Rotwildpark and Schönbuch forests are close by, and within about an hour you reach both the cliffs and caves of the Swabian Jura and the fir-covered ridges of the northern Black Forest.

Dijon's countryside is gentler. There are climbing cliffs and trails in the combes just west of town, a flat canal towpath, and the signed bike route through the Côte de Nuits vineyards. The Morvan's granite hills and lakes, its wildest scenery, are about an hour and a half away.

Both make excellent bases, and the difference is in the type of trip. From Dijon, the outings are mostly about wine and monasteries: Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot and Beaune along the Route des Grands Crus, Fontenay Abbey, and hilltop Flavigny and Semur-en-Auxois. Apart from Beaune, most of these are easiest by car, bike or small tour.

Stuttgart's choices are wider and easier by train: Ludwigsburg palace and Esslingen by S-Bahn, Tübingen and Heidelberg in under an hour, then Hohenzollern Castle, Ulm Minster, Maulbronn and Baden-Baden. Strasbourg is a long day across the border.

Stuttgart is far better for children. Wilhelma, the zoological and botanical garden among Moorish-style pavilions, is a full day on its own. Killesberg adds a narrow-gauge railway and animal enclosures, and Ludwigsburg has a fairy-tale garden. Outdoor pools, beer gardens with playgrounds and the rack railway fill the gaps.

Dijon is safe and relaxed with a pushchair-friendly pedestrian centre. Still, beyond the planetarium at the Jardin de l'Arquebuse, the Colombière lawns and paddling at Lac Kir, it offers little made for children.

Both are easy to get around, but in different ways. Dijon is small and flat. You can walk from the station to the market, palace and cathedral in minutes, two tram lines cover the rest, and fast trains reach Paris in well under two hours.

Stuttgart's centre is also walkable, but the city climbs steeply up the sides of its basin. You rely more on the integrated Stadtbahn, S-Bahn, rack railway and funicular, or on the Stäffele stairways if you are on foot. In both cities a car only matters for the countryside.

Stuttgart is the better place for shopping. Königstrasse is one of Germany's longest pedestrian streets, Breuninger covers designer and luxury fashion, and the Metzingen outlet village is about half an hour away for brand bargains.

Dijon's shopping is mostly about food and drink. Look for mustard in dozens of flavours, cassis, pain d'épices, cheese around Les Halles and Burgundy from the wine merchants, plus antiques in the lanes off Rue de la Liberté. It has little for anyone shopping for clothes.

Dijon is the cheaper of the two, with the prices of a French regional city. Hotels are moderate and bistro lunches and wine by the glass are good value, although tastings and good bottles add up quickly.

Stuttgart is a wealthy city where business travel sets hotel rates, and they rise sharply during big trade fairs. Weekends and quieter months are cheaper, and tavern meals and day tickets are reasonable, but overall a stay costs more.

Stuttgart has much more to offer on stage. The Stuttgart Ballet, famous since the Cranko era, and an adventurous opera company share the state theatre beside the palace gardens. The Liederhalle hosts orchestras and a strong Bach tradition, and the Möhringen theatres run long seasons of big musicals, with jazz on through the week.

Dijon's Opéra uses two venues, the old Grand Théâtre and the Auditorium with its fine acoustics, and there is a national drama centre. It is a good season for a regional city, but it slows down in summer, just when most visitors arrive.

Stuttgart is clearly ahead here, thanks to its mineral springs, which are among the most productive in Europe. At the Mineralbad Cannstatt and the Leuze you can spend an afternoon in warm, naturally carbonated pools and saunas, although the city's everyday pace is businesslike.

Dijon has no baths, only a handful of hotel spas, some offering grape-based treatments. Its restfulness comes from long lunches and quiet afternoons in the vineyards, not from treatments.