Dordogne or French Riviera?

This is where the two differ most. In the Dordogne, swimming means gravel banks on the Dordogne and Vézère below villages like La Roque-Gageac, or the small supervised lakes at Rouffiac and Gurson. It is a pleasant summer afternoon, but many visitors end up using the pool at their rented house, and the Atlantic is about three hours away.

The Riviera is a proper beach destination. You can choose between the pebble beaches of Nice and Menton, the sand at Cannes, Juan-les-Pins and Pampelonne, and the clear red-rock coves of the Esterel. Private beach concessions and summer crowds are the drawbacks.

Both regions eat very well, but the Riviera has more range. The Dordogne's table is duck and goose, walnuts, cèpes and winter truffles, with Sarlat's Saturday market as its high point and Bergerac and Monbazillac wines from the estates. After a week, though, the menus start to repeat.

On the coast, Nice has its own cuisine of socca, pissaladière and daube with ravioli, close to the cooking of Liguria. The stretch from Menton to Cannes also has a high density of serious restaurants. Avoid the seafront set menus and eat a street or two inland.

The two are level, but the history they offer is completely different. The Dordogne's strengths are prehistory and the Middle Ages: the Lascaux replica, Font-de-Gaume and the museum at Les Eyzies, the castles of Beynac and Castelnaud, and bastide towns such as Monpazier.

The Riviera's strength is twentieth-century art made where you see it, in the Matisse chapel in Vence, the Picasso collection in Antibes and the Fondation Maeght. Around that you have Nice's baroque and Belle Epoque streets and Monaco's palace and casino.

There is effectively no nightlife in the Dordogne. The liveliest evenings are summer night markets and village fêtes with a dance floor in the square, and Périgueux and Bergerac have only a handful of bars.

The Riviera has real nights out, mostly from June to September. You can choose between table-service clubs in Saint-Tropez and Monaco, the late strip at Juan-les-Pins, or the pubs and wine bars of Nice's old town, which stay open year-round thanks to its students.

The Riviera's landscape is more dramatic. Mountains drop to the sea, coastal paths circle the capes, the Esterel's red rock offers walking and kayaking, and the high trails of the Mercantour are about an hour and a half from Nice. Summer heat and wildfire closures can shut some areas.

The Dordogne is gentle, farmed countryside of limestone cliffs, oak woods and walnut orchards. It is best seen by canoe past the river castles, or on foot and by bike along quiet lanes and the greenway near Sarlat. It is lovely, but there is nothing wild enough to hold a keen hiker.

Both regions give you a week of easy outings. From the Dordogne they are drives to places with a strong identity: Rocamadour on its cliff, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in the Lot valley, red-stone Collonges-la-Rouge, and Saint-Émilion or Bordeaux from the Bergerac side.

From a base in Nice, the coastal train reaches Villefranche, Monaco and Menton in well under an hour, and Italy's Dolceacqua and Sanremo are just across the border. The Riviera has a wider mix of towns, but many days are spent on yet another hill village.

Both regions work for families, but they suit children of different ages. The Dordogne is best for eight-to-fourteen-year-olds, with gentle canoe trips, siege engines and armour at Castelnaud, and caves that bring prehistory to life. Toddlers have less to do there.

The Riviera's gently shelving sand at Juan-les-Pins, Cannes and Fréjus suits younger children better, and the Monaco aquarium and Parc Phoenix add rainy-day options. In both regions, steep steps defeat pushchairs and July and August are hot.

In the Dordogne you need a car. Trains reach only Périgueux, Bergerac and Sarlat, and village buses are sparse. The roads are quiet except in midsummer, when the riverside road through Beynac backs up.

The Riviera is far easier without a car. The shore railway links Cannes, Antibes, Nice, Monaco and Menton, and Nice has a tram to the airport. Hill villages and Saint-Tropez are harder to reach, and a car becomes a burden once you try to park in the resorts.

Shopping in the Dordogne is mostly about what you can fit in the car boot: foie gras, confit in jars, walnut oil and estate wines from the markets at Sarlat, Issigeac and Ribérac, plus summer brocantes. There is no fashion or design shopping to speak of.

The Riviera has luxury boutiques on the Croisette and around the Monte-Carlo casino, and Nice has department stores. It also has distinctive local crafts: perfume in Grasse, bubbled glass in Biot and pottery in Vallauris.

The Dordogne is the cheaper of the two, with rural French prices, village lunch menus and plenty of campsites and simple gîtes. Houses with pools near Sarlat are dear in high summer, and entry fees to caves and castles add up for a family.

The Riviera is expensive, especially in Saint-Tropez, Monaco and Cannes, where sunbeds and seafront lunches quickly push up the bill. Nice is the sensible base, and the cheap regional trains and free coastal paths help. In both regions, June and September are noticeably cheaper.

The Riviera has the far stronger programme. Monte-Carlo has a small gilded opera house, a philharmonic and a ballet company, and Nice has its own opera house and orchestra. In summer, the jazz festivals in the pine grove at Juan-les-Pins and on Place Masséna in Nice add more.

The Dordogne's live performance comes almost entirely in summer. Sarlat has its theatre festival, Périgueux its mime and street-theatre festival, and the Festival du Périgord Noir puts classical concerts in Romanesque churches. Out of season there is very little to see.

The Riviera has more to offer here, with a long tradition of thalassotherapy in Monaco and on the capes, and large hotel spas in quiet gardens on Cap Ferrat and Cap d'Antibes. The resorts are too loud for real rest in July and August.

The Dordogne has no spa culture beyond a few château hotels. It relaxes you through its pace instead: pool afternoons at a stone farmhouse and empty lanes in the Périgord Vert, especially in late spring and September.