Heidelberg or Lyon?

Neither city is anywhere near the sea, so swimming in either means a lake or a pool. Lyon has slightly better options. Its park at Miribel-Jonage has a supervised bathing lake on the edge of the city, and the clear Alpine water of Lake Annecy is a day out away. In Heidelberg, swimmers use outdoor pools or the gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain about half an hour out.

This is where the two differ most. Heidelberg eats the hearty way of Baden and the Kurpfalz: Maultaschen, Schäufele, Flammkuchen and white asparagus in spring. Its real strength is the Bergstrasse and Palatinate wine. The best meals are in Neuenheim and the village wine taverns, not the tourist strip below the castle.

Lyon is one of the great food cities of France. The bouchon is a dining tradition of its own, and the fine-dining heritage goes back to the Mères lyonnaises. Les Halles Paul Bocuse and the Sunday markets along the Saône are destinations in themselves, with Beaujolais and northern Rhône wine on hand. A food lover will find far more to explore here.

Heidelberg gives you one beautiful, concentrated scene. The red sandstone castle ruin looks down on the baroque Altstadt and the Old Bridge, and the university, founded in 1386, adds the Old University and the graffiti-covered Student Prison. Most visitors have seen it in a day or two.

Lyon spans two thousand years and needs several days. The Roman theatres and Gallo-Roman museum sit on Fourvière, and below them is Renaissance Vieux Lyon with its traboules. The Musée des Beaux-Arts is one of the finest in France, and there are the silk-weavers' buildings of Croix-Rousse and the Institut Lumière, where cinema began. It has no single famous landmark like Heidelberg's castle, but there is much more to see.

Heidelberg's evenings centre on the Untere Strasse: small pubs, old student taverns with carved tables, and a few late bars, all busiest in term time. Outside term the town goes quiet early, and anyone after a big club night takes the train to Mannheim or Frankfurt.

Lyon offers more choice. You can start in cocktail and wine bars on the Presqu'île, carry on in the barges moored along the Rhône, and end in warehouse clubs towards Gerland, a scene that also hosts the Nuits Sonores festival each spring. It too gets quieter outside weekends, but there is far more on.

The two are fairly level here, but the outdoors works differently in each. In Heidelberg the forest starts at the edge of the old town. The Philosophers' Walk, the trails on the Königstuhl and the Celtic ramparts on the Heiligenberg can all be reached on foot or by funicular. Lyon's green life is more urban, with long car-free quays along the Rhône and the big Parc de la Tête d'Or. With a car, though, Lyon can reach the limestone massifs of Chartreuse and Vercors and the high Alps, which is steeper and wilder country than the Odenwald or the Palatinate Forest.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in the themes. From Heidelberg you can reach the great Romanesque cathedrals of Speyer and Worms, the abbeys at Lorsch and Maulbronn, the castles along the Neckar and the half-timbered villages of the Palatinate Wine Route, most of them easily by train on one regional fare.

Lyon looks towards Roman Vienne, the hill village of Pérouges, the Beaujolais and the Burgundy towns around Beaune. In the other direction it reaches Annecy's lake and the Alps, so you get mountain scenery that Heidelberg's outings don't offer.

Both are easy with children, with different highlights. In Heidelberg the funicular ride itself is the treat, with a small fairy-tale park at the top, and the Technik Museum Speyer lets children climb into aircraft and a submarine. Lyon puts its best outings in town: a free zoo, pedalos and pony rides in the Parc de la Tête d'Or, dinosaur skeletons at the Musée des Confluences and Guignol puppet shows. In both cities the hilly old lanes are hard work with a pushchair.

Getting around is easy in both cities, with a slight edge to Lyon. Heidelberg is basically one long walk along the pedestrian Hauptstrasse. The only rides you'll need are a tram in from the distant station and the funicular up the castle hill.

Lyon is larger, but its metro, trams, funiculars and bike-share all run on one ticket, and the airport has its own tram link. The Presqu'île is flat and easy to walk. The hills mean the odd climb or change, but you'll rarely be far from a stop.

Heidelberg's shopping is essentially one street. High-street chains line the western end of the Hauptstrasse, and cuckoo clocks, beer steins and Studentenkuss chocolates fill the eastern end. Serious fashion shoppers head to Frankfurt.

Lyon offers much more. There are luxury labels around Place des Jacobins, a huge mall at Part-Dieu, silk scarves from its weaving heritage, designer workshops on Croix-Rousse and antique dealers on the rue Auguste Comte. Each city's best souvenir is something to eat or drink: Bergstrasse wine from Heidelberg, pralines and charcuterie from Lyon.

Overall costs are much the same, but the pressure points differ. In Heidelberg the problem is rooms: there aren't many, and congresses and summer weekends fill them, so many visitors stay in Mannheim and come in by train. Lyon has plenty of hotels for most of the year but gets tight during trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières. In both, eating is where you save, through student cafés and taverns in Heidelberg and generous bouchon set lunches in Lyon.

Heidelberg does well for a small town. The municipal theatre stages opera and drama, the Heidelberger Frühling festival brings chamber music in spring, and in summer plays and concerts are staged in the castle courtyard against the ruins.

Lyon has a bigger and stronger stage scene. There's the Opéra under its glass vault, the Orchestre National, the grand Célestins playhouse and, above all, dance, with the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale. Its summer equivalent of Heidelberg's castle stage is the Nuits de Fourvière, held in the Roman theatres above the city.

Neither city has baths of its own, but Heidelberg has the edge for proper thermal bathing. The Kraichgau's saline pools and saunas are about half an hour away and Baden-Baden about an hour, while Lyon's nearest equivalent, Aix-les-Bains, is a longer outing. The way to relax differs too: in Heidelberg it is evenings on the Neckar meadows and quiet forest paths, in Lyon long lunches, a hammam and Sunday mornings by the Saône.