French Alps or Normandy?

Neither destination has warm-sea swimming, but the Alpine lakes give the better summer swim. Lake Annecy is clear and reaches about 23°C at the height of summer, with grassy beaches and wooden jetties at Sévrier and Talloires, and little Lac d'Aiguebelette is often warmer still.

Normandy has real sandy seaside at Deauville, Cabourg and Houlgate, with beach cabins and boardwalks. However, the Channel stays around 18°C even in August, and at low tide the water pulls back hundreds of metres. These beaches are better for sandcastles and walks along the shore than for a long swim.

Both are dairy country, but it ends up on the plate in different ways. The Alps cook melted cheese: fondue, raclette and tartiflette made with Beaufort and Reblochon, washed down with Savoie whites and Génépi. Above that sits a tier of decorated kitchens around Lake Annecy, Megève and Courchevel.

Normandy cooks its butter and cream into sauces and adds the sea: oysters from Saint-Vaast and Isigny, scallops, and mussels in cider, with calvados bought from the Pays d'Auge farms. Over a week, its harbour restaurants and market towns offer a little more variety than a run of resort cheese menus.

Here Normandy is in another league. Mont-Saint-Michel, the D-Day beaches with the Caen Memorial, the Bayeux tapestry, and Rouen's cathedral and half-timbered streets are each worth the journey on their own. Giverny, Jumièges and Le Havre's rebuilt centre add even more.

The Alps offer pleasant half days rather than a cultural itinerary. The highlights are Annecy's canals and the Palais de l'Isle, the dukes' château in Chambéry, Grenoble's fine-arts museum and Briançon's Vauban walls. They fit around the mountains rather than shaping the trip.

In winter, the Alps win easily. Après-ski starts on the slopes in late afternoon and carries on in the bars and clubs of Val d'Isère, Val Thorens and Méribel into the small hours. Out of season the resorts fall quiet, and summer evenings move to Annecy's lakeside terraces and Grenoble's student bars.

Normandy is a region of long dinners and early nights. Rouen and Caen have the bars and a few clubs, and Deauville has its casino, but the countryside is silent after dark.

The Alps are one of the world's great mountain landscapes, and Normandy has no mountains at all. Mont Blanc above Chamonix, the cable car to the Aiguille du Midi, the Tour du Mont Blanc, the wild passes of the Vanoise and Écrins and the vast ski areas of the Tarentaise make this a trip built around the outdoors.

Normandy's finest scenery is on its coast. There are chalk arches at Étretat, windswept granite headlands at Cap de la Hague, and guided walks across the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel. Inland, the hedged bocage suits gentle cycling, and the Suisse Normande adds a little climbing and kayaking.

Both give you plenty of outings, but from the Alps many of the best ones cross a border. From Annecy or the Lake Geneva shore, Geneva is under an hour away, lake ferries cross to Lausanne and the Lavaux vineyards, and walled Yvoire makes an easy half day. Lyon is about two hours from Annecy by train. From Chamonix, the Mont Blanc tunnel puts Courmayeur and Aosta in Italy about an hour away. The deep Tarentaise valleys are the weak spot, because too much of the day goes on the road.

Normandy's outings mostly stay within the region: the harbour at Honfleur, the cider villages of the Pays d'Auge and fishing ports such as Barfleur on the Cotentin. Saint-Malo is just over the Breton border, summer ferries cross to Jersey, and Paris is under two hours from Rouen by train.

The Alps are the stronger choice for children, especially those old enough to ski. Ski schools are built around children, car-free resorts like Avoriaz and Flaine let families walk to the slopes, and summer brings the rack railway to the Mer de Glace and marmot spotting. Altitude, cold mornings and transfer days do tire the very young.

Normandy is calmer and easier but less exciting. It offers sandy beaches for kites and rock pools, Mont-Saint-Michel's ramparts, the walk-through submarine at Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg, and farm visits. Against that come cool water and longish drives.

In the Alps the hard part is getting there. You transfer from Geneva, Lyon or Grenoble on winter roads that queue on Saturdays and often need snow chains. Once you are in a resort, lifts and compact villages make a car unnecessary. Summer is different, because the lakes and passes are spread across separate valleys.

Normandy has easy roads and good trains from Paris to Rouen, Caen and Bayeux, but buses barely reach the landing beaches, Étretat or Mont-Saint-Michel. Without a car you will depend on tours. The distances also make it worth splitting the stay between two bases.

The Alps have more worth seeking out. Chamonix's mountaineering and ski shops are among the best places in Europe for technical gear, and Courchevel and Megève have luxury boutiques. Opinel knives and wheels of Beaufort make good things to take home, and Geneva is close if you want a wider choice.

Normandy's shopping is mostly edible: calvados, cider and cheese from farms and markets. Beyond that there is lace in Alençon and Bayeux, copper from Villedieu-les-Poêles and Rouen's faience pottery. Rouen's pedestrian streets are the region's only real shopping district.

Normandy is clearly the cheaper trip. Cottages, chambres d'hôtes and set lunches in market towns cost what the French provinces usually do, and many D-Day sites are free. Only Deauville, Honfleur and the Mont-Saint-Michel area charge more in summer, and car hire adds to the bill.

The big Alpine ski resorts are among the costliest places to stay in Europe once lift passes, equipment hire and ski school are added. A summer stay, a low-season week or a base in Grenoble, Chambéry or the Bauges brings the Alps down to ordinary prices. Annecy in high summer stays expensive.

Neither is a place to plan around nights at the theatre, but Normandy offers a little more. Rouen's Théâtre des Arts runs opera, ballet and an orchestral season. Caen and Le Havre have good modern stages, and little Coutances hosts a long-running spring jazz festival.

In the Alps, Grenoble's arts centre and chamber orchestra carry the year-round programme, joined in summer by chamber music at Évian and concerts in mountain churches. In ski season, it is mostly bands in the après-ski bars.

The Alps have the deeper spa tradition and the finer settings for it. Aix-les-Bains and Évian are grand lakeside spa towns, and Saint-Gervais has thermal baths in a wooded gorge below Mont Blanc. Smaller cure towns such as Brides-les-Bains are quiet by design, and winter adds hotel hot tubs facing the snow.

Normandy's version is built on seawater, with thalassotherapy centres at Deauville, Cabourg and Granville, plus the inland thermal town of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne. Its most restful quality is the slow pace of orchards and small harbours, except on the Côte Fleurie in August.