Dordogne or Loire Valley?

Neither region is a beach destination, but the Dordogne offers real swimming. There are shallow gravel banks on the Dordogne and Vézère below Beynac and La Roque-Gageac, and sandy-shored lakes at Rouffiac and Gurson. The water is warm enough from late June to early September, as long as the rivers are not running high after rain.

The Loire itself is off limits, because its currents and shifting sandbanks make it dangerous. Swimming there means a roped-off area at the Lac de Maine near Angers or a leisure lake in the Sologne, and most visitors end up in the pool at their rental house.

Both are serious eating regions, and the difference is what fills the plate. The Dordogne is duck and goose country, with confit, foie gras, cèpes and winter truffles. Sarlat's Saturday market is the high point, with Bergerac and Monbazillac wines to go with it, but the menu grows repetitive after a week.

The Loire puts wine first, from Vouvray and Chinon to sparkling Saumur aged in tufa caves, and its cooking is lighter: rillettes, river fish in beurre blanc, goat cheeses and tarte Tatin. Tours and Angers also have a wider choice of restaurants than any town in the Périgord.

These are two of France's richest heritage regions, and the main difference is the period. The Dordogne's strength is deep time: the painted caves and rock shelters of the Vézère valley, Font-de-Gaume and the museum at Les Eyzies. After that come Sarlat's medieval centre and the fortified castles of Beynac and Castelnaud.

The Loire has a little more in one place, with the Renaissance at its heart: Chambord, Chenonceau built across the Cher, and royal Blois and Amboise. Fontevraud abbey and the Apocalypse Tapestry in Angers add to it. Choose by whether cave art or royal architecture draws you more.

The Loire has a modest evening scene and the Dordogne almost none, though in the Loire it is confined to two university cities. In Tours, students fill the terraces around Place Plumereau in the timbered old quarter on warm nights, and Angers has a smaller student district of its own, with a few places in each staying open late. Stay in a village among the châteaux, though, and the night ends after dinner, much as it does in the Périgord.

The Dordogne has no town to match either city, since Périgueux and Bergerac have only a handful of bars between them. Its summer evenings belong to the village night markets and fêtes, where you eat at shared tables and there is dancing in the square. That makes a good evening with children in tow, but it is no substitute for going out to bars.

Both are gentle lowland landscapes with no mountains or wild country, and the difference lies in how you see them. The Dordogne is best seen by canoe, paddling under limestone cliffs past La Roque-Gageac and the castles, with the hanging gardens of Marqueyssac on the cliff above.

The Loire is cycling country. The Loire à Vélo route follows a wide braided river of sandbanks and nesting terns, and the heaths and ponds of the Sologne are good for spotting deer in the autumn rut.

The Loire offers more distinct places to visit. From Tours you can reach Amboise, Blois, Chinon, Loches, Saumur and Angers, each a real town with its own character. The troglodyte villages around Saumur are unlike anything else in France, and Paris is about an hour away by high-speed train.

The Dordogne's outings are more alike: lovely villages such as Domme and Brantôme, with Rocamadour and the Lot valley just beyond its edge. From the Bergerac side, Saint-Émilion or Bordeaux makes a longer day out.

The Loire Valley is the stronger choice with children, especially younger ones. The Beauval zoo is worth a full day, Clos Lucé has Leonardo's machines built at full size, and the flat cycle route suits small riders.

The Dordogne works best for children of about eight to fourteen, with canoe trips, the siege engines at Castelnaud and the prehistoric sites around Les Eyzies. Steps and cliff paths make pushchairs hard work, and the drives and summer heat are tiring for toddlers.

In the Dordogne you need a car. Buses barely reach the valleys, and in summer the riverside road through Beynac and La Roque-Gageac backs up.

The Loire is still easier by car, but a regional rail line links Orléans, Blois, Amboise, Tours, Saumur and Angers. With widespread bike hire and luggage sent ahead, a trip without a car is realistic there.

In both regions you shop for the larder, not the wardrobe. In the Dordogne, people fill the car boot with foie gras, walnut oil and Bergerac wine from the open-air markets, and summer brocantes add antiques. The Loire has cellar-door wine, goat cheese, Gien faience and Saumur leather, and Tours has a wider range of town-centre shops.

Costs are much the same in both, at the level of provincial France, with good-value set lunches and inexpensive wine bought from the grower. The difference is where the money goes. In the Dordogne, cave and castle tickets and canoe hire add up for a family.

In the Loire, each château charges its own entrance fee, and rentals near Amboise and Chenonceau are expensive. In both regions, the months either side of July and August are noticeably cheaper.

The Loire has more to offer, and it lasts all year. Tours has its Grand Théâtre opera house and Angers a regional orchestra. In summer there are sound-and-light shows at Blois and Amboise and chamber music at the Grange de Meslay.

The Dordogne's live performance happens almost entirely in summer: Sarlat's theatre festival, Périgueux's mime festival and classical concerts in Romanesque churches. Outside that season there is little to attend.

Neither region has thermal baths, and in both you relax through the slow pace more than through treatments. In the Dordogne that means a stone farmhouse with a pool and long lunches, and it is quietest in the Périgord Vert. The Loire relies more on spas in château hotels, some with grape-based treatments, and gentle cycling and the gardens of Villandry and Chaumont keep the days unhurried.