Dordogne or Normandy?

Swimming in the Dordogne means rivers and small lakes: gravel banks on the Dordogne and the Vézère below villages like La Roque-Gageac, and sandy-shored lakes such as Rouffiac. The water is warm in high summer, but it is an afternoon dip, and the Atlantic is three hours away.

Normandy has the better offer because it has the sea. The Côte Fleurie resorts of Deauville, Trouville and Cabourg have wide sand, boardwalks and beach cabins, and the west Cotentin is quieter. The Channel stays cool, though, and at low tide the water pulls far out, so the beach is more for walking and rock pools than long swims.

Both regions eat very well, and in very different ways. The Dordogne cooks with duck and goose, from confit and magret to foie gras and potatoes fried in the fat, with walnuts, cèpes and winter truffles, and Bergerac and Monbazillac wines on the side. Sarlat's Saturday market is the highlight.

Normandy runs on butter, cream and apples: Camembert and Livarot, cider and calvados from the Pays d'Auge farms, and oysters and scallops from the coast. That seafood gives Normandy more variety over a week, and Rouen has the deeper restaurant choice of the two regions.

These two are evenly matched, but the history they offer is very different. The Dordogne's strength is deep prehistory in the Vézère valley and the Middle Ages along the river, with Beynac and Castelnaud, the bastide of Monpazier and Sarlat's old town, nearly all within half an hour of one base.

Normandy's great sights are more famous and further apart: Mont-Saint-Michel, the Bayeux Tapestry, the D-Day beaches and the Caen Memorial, and Rouen's cathedral and Monet's garden at Giverny. Seeing them all means long drives or a second base.

The Dordogne has almost nothing after dinner. Its summer night markets and village fêtes, with long tables and dancing in the square, are the liveliest evenings it offers.

Normandy is no party region either, but it has two university cities. Rouen has bars and a few clubs around the cathedral and Place du Vieux-Marché, Caen has late bars in the Vaugueux quarter, and Deauville adds its casino in summer.

Neither region has mountains, and both are gentle rather than wild, but the Dordogne's scenery is river country. Its best moments come by canoe under limestone cliffs and castles, or looking down from the gardens of Marqueyssac.

Normandy's finest landscapes are on the coast: the chalk arches of Étretat, the windswept headlands of Cap de la Hague and guided low-tide walks across the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, with seals on the sandbanks. Inland, the Suisse Normande adds climbing and kayaking.

Both make excellent touring bases. In the Dordogne the outings are close together and similar in kind: clifftop Domme, the abbey at Saint-Amand-de-Coly, Rocamadour an hour from Sarlat, and the Lot valley and Saint-Émilion just beyond.

Normandy's outings range more widely, from Honfleur's harbour and the Pays d'Auge villages to Cotentin fishing ports. You can also cross into Brittany for Saint-Malo, take the summer ferry to Jersey or reach Paris by train.

Children are well looked after in both. The Dordogne suits active eight-to-fourteen-year-olds best, with canoeing, armour and siege engines at Castelnaud, prehistoric sites and warm river beaches. The castle steps and cliff paths are hard with a pushchair, though, and July and August can be hot.

Normandy is a bucket-and-spade vacation on wide sand, with rock pools, the submarine at Cherbourg's Cité de la Mer and the Cerza zoo. Cold water and fickle weather are its drawbacks, and some D-Day sites are too sombre for small children.

Normandy is the easier of the two without a car. Trains from Paris reach Rouen, Caen, Bayeux, Le Havre and Deauville-Trouville, and organised tours cover the landing beaches. Its distances are long, though, with Rouen about three hours from Mont-Saint-Michel.

In the Dordogne a car is essential, as buses barely reach the valleys. The sights sit close together, but in high summer the riverside road through Beynac and La Roque-Gageac clogs and Sarlat's parking fills early on market day.

The Dordogne's shopping barely goes beyond the market stalls, so Normandy has the wider choice. In the Dordogne the car boot fills with foie gras, walnut oil and estate wines from markets such as Issigeac, and summer adds village brocantes.

Normandy has edible souvenirs too, such as salted-butter caramels and farm pommeau, but it also has Rouen's pedestrian shopping streets, a few fashion boutiques in Deauville and Honfleur's art galleries. Old crafts survive as well, from Alençon lace to copper pans in Villedieu-les-Poêles.

Costs are much the same, the usual prices of provincial France. In the Dordogne, campsites, gîtes, grower's wine and village set lunches keep things reasonable. Houses with pools near Sarlat cost more in high summer, and fees for caves, castles and canoes add up for a family.

Normandy saves money with free D-Day sites and beaches, but Deauville, Honfleur and the area around Mont-Saint-Michel are noticeably dearer, and car hire is hard to avoid.

Normandy has more to offer, and not just in summer. Rouen's Théâtre des Arts stages opera, ballet and an orchestral season, Caen and Le Havre have modern venues, and the Jazz sous les Pommiers festival fills Coutances in spring.

The Dordogne's live performance is almost all in summer: street theatre in Sarlat's squares, mime in Périgueux and classical concerts in Romanesque churches for the Festival du Périgord Noir. The rest of the year there is little to see.

Normandy has a real spa culture, with heated seawater thalassotherapy centres at Deauville, Cabourg and Granville, and the belle-époque thermal town of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne in the Orne forests.

The Dordogne has no bathing tradition and only a few spas in château hotels. Rest there comes from the pace, with pool afternoons and quiet villages, best in the Périgord Vert and away from August's crowds around Sarlat.