Lille or Nice?

Swimming is no reason to come to Lille. The nearest sand is at Dunkirk, about an hour away by train, and the North Sea there is fine for a brisk walk but cold for swimming even in August. The Opal Coast dunes further on suit walking and sand yachting better than swimming.

In Nice the beach is part of daily life. Pebbles run for about 7km below the Promenade des Anglais, and the water is clear and warm for much of the year. Loungers and water shoes make the stones easier. If you want sand, Villefranche, Paloma beach and Juan-les-Pins are all a short ride away.

Nice comes out a little ahead, mainly because its cooking suits the way you eat on a warm-weather trip. Socca hot from wood ovens, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and the Cours Saleya market make it easy to eat well and simply outdoors, and the Bellet wines from the hills are rarely found elsewhere. The thing to avoid is the set-menu terraces on the promenade.

Lille's food is heavier Flemish fare, best in the wood-panelled estaminets of Vieux-Lille: carbonnade in beer, potjevleesch, the welsh, and Maroilles in almost everything. Beer comes before wine. Wazemmes market and the waffles from Meert add a sweet and multi-ethnic side.

The two are equally rich in culture, but in different eras. Lille is the place for old masters and northern architecture: Flemish and Dutch painting, Goya and the relief maps at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, the carved brick of the Vieille Bourse, Vauban's citadel, and La Piscine in Roubaix, an art museum in a former Art Deco pool.

Nice is about light and modern art. Matisse among the Roman ruins of Cimiez, Chagall's biblical cycle and the Yves Klein works at MAMAC sit alongside an Italianate old town and the Belle Époque villas of the resort years. Both fill two or three days well.

Lille has the better night out, thanks to one of France's largest student populations. Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino are packed on Thursday nights, and the cellar bars and beer cafés of Vieux-Lille offer something calmer. For proper clubbing, people have long crossed the nearby Belgian border.

In Nice the evening is usually dinner and drinks in the lanes of Vieux Nice, with a few more grown-up bars at the port. Beach clubs keep things going in summer, but the city quietens down outside the season, and the glossier Riviera nights happen in Monaco and Cannes.

Here the two cities could hardly differ more. Nice sits where the Alps meet the sea. Castle Hill and Mont Boron are walks from the centre, there are coastal paths around Cap Ferrat, and the Mercantour's lakes and larch forests are within about two hours. In winter you can ski at Isola 2000 and be back by the sea the same day.

French Flanders around Lille is flat, farmed and densely settled. The Citadel park, towpath cycling along the Deûle and the low Monts de Flandre make for pleasant afternoons. For real scenery you need a long day out to the chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez.

Lille's day trips cross borders and reach other countries' great cities. Brussels is about half an hour by fast train, Ghent and Bruges around an hour, Paris an hour by TGV, and London is just possible by Eurostar for an ambitious day. Closer to home, Amiens has its great Gothic cathedral, Arras its arcaded Flemish squares, and the First World War memorials around Ypres, Vimy and the Somme make sobering days out.

Nice offers a string of smaller towns along one stretch of coast, each with its own character and most under an hour away without a car. Monaco's palace and casino, lemon-coloured Menton, Èze on its rock, the Picasso Museum in Antibes and the Fondation Maeght at Saint-Paul-de-Vence could fill a week. Sanremo, over the border in Italy, is an easy train ride away.

Nice is the slightly easier place with children. The flat promenade suits pushchairs and scooters, the Promenade du Paillon has water jets for hot days, and Parc Phoenix and the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco make good outings. The downsides are pebbles that hurt small feet and the summer heat.

Lille has the zoo and playgrounds of the Citadel park and the hands-on Forum des Sciences, reached by metro. The big attractions, Pairi Daiza and the Nausicaá aquarium, need a longer trip, and the cobbles of Vieux-Lille are hard going with a pushchair.

Both are flat and easy to explore on foot, with no need for a car. Lille's big advantage is its stations: Lille Flandres and Lille Europe stand side by side, a walk from the old town, and the automated VAL metro and the tram reach Roubaix and Tourcoing.

In Nice the tram runs straight from the airport to the centre and the port, and buses climb to the museums in Cimiez. Regional trains serve the coast, though they can be packed in summer, and you only need a car for the mountains.

Shopping is about equal in both, and the differences are in what you buy. Lille's best browsing is the independent fashion, design shops and delicatessens of Vieux-Lille, and every September the Braderie turns the whole city into an enormous flea market.

Nice is better for things to take home from Provence, such as olive oil, soaps, fabrics and candied fruit from the old town, plus the Monday antiques market on the Cours Saleya. Serious luxury buyers tend to head on to Monaco or Cannes.

Lille is noticeably kinder to a budget. Hotel rooms are reasonable except during the Braderie and the big trade fairs, and estaminet meals, beer and the metro are fairly priced.

Nice is expensive, especially from June to September, when rooms near the sea and private beach loungers cost the most. Cheap trams and coastal trains, inexpensive museums and socca for lunch claw some of it back, and spring and late autumn are easier on the wallet.

Lille has the fuller programme across the year. The Opéra de Lille, the Orchestre National de Lille and the Théâtre du Nord, one of France's national theatres, run full seasons, Roubaix and Tourcoing add contemporary dance, and the Aéronef brings touring bands.

Nice has its nineteenth-century opera house and a national theatre, but its highlights are a few dates in the calendar: the Nice Jazz Festival in July and the Carnival in February. The rest of the year, live music mostly means small bars in the old town.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Nice is the more restful of the two. You can take an early swim before the crowds, have a long lunch and walk the promenade at dusk, with thalassotherapy centres along the coast. It is calmest out of season, as high summer is hot and busy.

In Lille, relaxing means hotel spas and slow afternoons in the tea rooms of Vieux-Lille. The nearest real thermal bath is a short train ride away in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux.