Girona or Lyon?

Neither city has a beach of its own, but Girona has the Mediterranean within an hour. Platja d'Aro and Tossa de Mar have sandy bays, the coves around Begur have rocky shores and clear water, and the sea is warm enough for swimming all summer. It makes an easy add-on to a city stay, especially with a car.

From Lyon the sea is around three hours away. Swimming there means the supervised lake at Miribel-Jonage or a long day out to the Alpine water of Annecy or the Lac du Bourget.

Both cities are close to serious wine country and both eat best at lunchtime, but Lyon is the deeper food destination. The bouchon is a cuisine in itself, with quenelles, andouillette and praline tart. Behind it lies a long line of celebrated cooks, along with Les Halles Paul Bocuse and the Sunday markets beside the Saône.

Girona has Catalan home cooking, mar i muntanya dishes, xuixos, Empordà wine and a few top tasting-menu kitchens, which is impressive for its size. There are simply fewer good tables, so a week of eating out starts to repeat itself sooner.

Lyon has more to see and needs more time. There are the Roman theatres on Fourvière, the Renaissance lanes and traboules of Vieux Lyon, a major fine-art museum on the Presqu'île and the Institut Lumière, all spread across a large UNESCO-listed area.

Girona's appeal is packed into one walled quarter: the cathedral with its very wide Gothic nave, the Jewish Call, the Arab Baths and the walk along the walls. It is lovely and holds together well, but its museums are small and a day or two covers it.

Lyon is the place for a night out. It has wine and cocktail bars on the Presqu'île, pubs in Vieux Lyon, bars and clubs on barges along the Rhône and a real electronic music scene, even if weeknights end earlier than you might expect.

Girona's evenings mean terraces, dinner and student bars in term time, with only a handful of late spots at weekends. For proper clubbing, people take the train to Barcelona.

Girona has the better outdoors, and it starts at the edge of town. Road cyclists come for the climbs of Rocacorba and Els Àngels, flat greenways run to Olot and the coast, and the volcanic Garrotxa, the Costa Brava cliff paths and Cap de Creus are all within an hour.

Lyon's outdoor strength is inside the city, with the car-free Rhône quays and the large Parc de la Tête d'Or. Beyond it, the Monts d'Or and the Beaujolais are gentle country, and the more dramatic Chartreuse and Vercors take an hour or more by car.

Both make fine bases, and Girona's range is a little wider. From Girona you can reach Barcelona by fast train, the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Besalú and Peratallada, the ruins of Empúries and even Perpignan across the border. That covers a big city, art, coast and medieval villages.

Lyon's day trips lean towards wine and old towns: Roman Vienne, Pérouges, the Beaujolais and the Burgundy vineyards around Beaune, with Annecy and the Alps further out. In both regions a car makes the villages far easier to reach.

Lyon is easier with children. The Parc de la Tête d'Or can fill a day on its own, with a free zoo, pedalos and pony rides. The dinosaurs at the Musée des Confluences, an aquarium, Guignol puppet shows and the Fourvière funiculars add plenty more.

Girona is calm and safe but has little made for children beyond the Devesa park and the walls, and its stepped old town is hard work with a pushchair. Families there usually spend their days on the Costa Brava beaches.

Lyon is effortless to get around. Four metro lines, trams, funiculars and bike-share all work together, and the flat Presqu'île holds most of the sights.

Girona is small enough to cross on foot in about twenty minutes, but its old quarter is all stairs. Once you leave town, buses are infrequent, so most visitors hire a car.

Lyon gives shoppers much more. The chains line rue de la République, luxury labels gather near Place des Jacobins and Part-Dieu has a large mall. There are also silk and designer workshops on Croix-Rousse and antique dealers on rue Auguste Comte.

Girona has independent shops around the Rambla, delicatessens and plenty of cycling kit, and serious shoppers go to Barcelona. In both cities, food from the market hall is the best thing to take home.

Girona is the slightly cheaper of the two. Weekday set lunches are good value and almost everything is on foot. On the other hand, old-town rooms are few and get expensive in summer and the cycling season, and a hire car adds to the bill.

In Lyon the bouchon set lunch is the bargain. Dinners follow normal French prices, and rooms become scarce during trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières. Not needing a car does save money.

Lyon has a full stage season. Its own opera and ballet perform under the glass vault of the Opéra, and the city also has a national orchestra, grand old playhouses and one of Europe's leading dance venues. In summer, the Nuits de Fourvière puts on shows in the Roman theatres.

Girona has the Auditori, the Teatre Municipal and a strong autumn festival in Temporada Alta. Outside that festival and the summer concerts on the coast the programme is thin, and much of the theatre is in Catalan.

Neither is a spa city, and both are restful mainly because of their pace: long lunches, river walks and quiet mornings. The real difference is thermal water.

From Girona, the spring-water pools of Caldes de Malavella are a short drive south, so a spa afternoon fits easily into the trip. Lyon has hammams, day spas and an open-air pool on the Rhône quays in town, but real thermal bathing means the longer trip to Aix-les-Bains.