Lille or Nantes?

Neither city has a beach on the doorstep, but Nantes gets you to much better sand. La Baule's long, sheltered bay and the coves around Pornic are about an hour away by train. In late summer the Atlantic there is warm enough for a proper family swim.

From Lille, the nearest sand is the windy North Sea beach at Dunkirk, where the water stays cold. The dune beaches of the Opal Coast are better for walking or sand yachting than for swimming.

The two cities eat equally well, but from different traditions. Lille is Flemish and hearty: carbonnade in beer, the cheese-laden welsh, pungent Maroilles and a serious beer culture in wood-panelled estaminets.

Nantes looks to the sea and the vineyard instead. You get pike-perch with beurre blanc, oysters from the nearby coast, buckwheat galettes and crisp Muscadet poured with the shellfish. Choose Lille for ales and comfort food, Nantes for seafood and white wine.

Each city fills two or three days, but the emphasis differs. In Lille the pull is art and architecture. The Palais des Beaux-Arts holds Flemish and Dutch masters, the streets of Vieux-Lille are carved Flemish baroque, and La Piscine and the LaM are only a metro ride away.

Nantes is more about history. The moated ducal château tells the city's story, including its role in the slave trade, and the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery and the merchant façades of the Ile Feydeau carry that story on. The Jules Verne museum adds a literary angle.

Both are student cities, but Lille goes out a little harder. On Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino the bars are packed and loud on Thursday nights, the cellars of Vieux-Lille offer beer and cocktails for an older crowd, and Belgium is close by for later clubbing.

Nantes is gentler. Evenings centre on the pubs and terraces of the Bouffay. For late nights the crowd moves to the riverside clubs in the old warehouses on the Ile de Nantes, and things go quiet outside term.

Nantes has far more to offer outdoors. You can follow the wooded Erdre by towpath or canoe, cycle the Loire à Vélo route through vineyards to the estuary, or go birdwatching by punt in the Brière marshes. The cliff paths at Pornic and Le Croisic are within an hour or so.

Lille's landscape is flat farmed Flanders. You have the Citadel park loop, level canal towpaths and short walks on the low Monts de Flandre. The chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez make a fine coastal walk, but they're a long day out.

This is where Lille pulls clearly ahead. Brussels is about half an hour away by train, Ghent and Bruges about an hour, and Paris is close enough by TGV for an easy day. The Gothic cathedral at Amiens, the arcaded squares of Arras and the First World War battlefields around Ypres and the Somme fill out a long list.

Nantes is a good base too, but a regional one. Its trips cover walled Guérande above the salt marshes, Angers and its Apocalypse Tapestry, Clisson in the Muscadet country and the Loire châteaux further east. They're rewarding, but they don't have the international range of Lille's.

Nantes has the clear edge with children, mainly because of the Machines de l'Ile. Riding the giant mechanical elephant or the sea-creature carousel is a highlight few cities can match. The Port-Saint-Père safari park, the Puy du Fou and the sandy beaches at La Baule add plenty more.

Lille is pleasant with children but more limited. You have the small zoo and playgrounds in the Citadel park and a science centre by metro. The bigger outings, Pairi Daiza and the Nausicaá aquarium, mean crossing a border or heading to the coast.

Both centres are flat and compact enough to walk, and neither needs a car. In Lille, the two main stations stand side by side next to the old town, and the driverless VAL metro reaches out to Roubaix and the outer museums.

Nantes relies on its trams instead, a simple network a visitor picks up at once, plus little river shuttles across the Loire. Its flat riverside paths also make it the easier city to explore by bike.

Lille offers more to browse. It has the chain streets of Rue Neuve, the large Euralille mall, and independent designers and a few luxury labels in Vieux-Lille. Every September the Braderie turns the whole city into one of Europe's biggest flea markets.

Nantes is smaller and more about atmosphere. The three-level Passage Pommeraye is lovely to wander, and the streets around Bouffay hold second-hand and independent shops. Its best buys are edible: Guérande salt, salted-butter biscuits and Muscadet.

The two cost about the same, typical of large French regional cities, so they're comfortable rather than cheap. The pressure points differ. Lille's hotels fill and get pricier during the Braderie and the big trade fairs. In Nantes the extra cost comes from coastal stays in high summer, which matters if beach days are part of the plan.

The two stages are broadly matched, with a different flavour in each. Lille offers the classic regional programme: the grand Opéra on the Place du Théâtre, the Orchestre National de Lille and the Théâtre du Nord, with contemporary dance out in Roubaix and Tourcoing.

Nantes leans towards festivals and spectacle. La Folle Journée fills the city with short classical concerts each winter, and the Lieu Unique stages experimental work in the old biscuit factory. Its tradition of giant street puppetry brings performance out into the squares.

Neither city is built for rest, but Nantes gives you more ways to unwind. Afternoons by the Erdre or in the Jardin des Plantes are easy to come by. The long-established thalassotherapy centres at La Baule and Pornic offer proper seawater treatments about an hour away.

Lille's options are mostly hotel spas and slow hours on the café terraces of Vieux-Lille. The thermal baths at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux are a short train ride away for anyone who wants a real soak.