Luxembourg or Paris?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Luxembourg has a slight edge for a summer swim. It has real lakes: the wooded Upper Sûre reservoir about an hour north and the old gravel pits at Remerschen, both pleasant at around 20°C to 22°C in high summer.

Paris makes do with riverbanks dressed up as beaches and supervised swimming in the canal and the Seine. The nearest sea is the cool Channel in Normandy, two hours away. In both cities, the indoor pools are the dependable option.

Luxembourg eats well, but in a narrower range. French-led fine dining sits alongside brasseries and long-running Portuguese and Italian neighbourhood places, while cheap, casual meals are harder to find. The best local offering is Moselle Riesling and crémant by the glass, a smaller pleasure than what Paris offers.

Paris is one of the world's great places to eat. Daily life revolves around the boulangerie, the cheese shop and the street market. On top of that come zinc-counter bistros, natural-wine bars, inventive small kitchens in the eastern neighbourhoods near the canal, couscous in Belleville and Vietnamese pho in the south-east of the city.

Luxembourg's culture is really one great sight: the UNESCO-listed fortress city itself. You can walk through the Bock casemates, look down on the Grund from the Corniche, then add MUDAM and the national museum, and you have seen it in two days.

Paris works on another scale altogether. The Louvre alone could fill that time, and the Orsay, Pompidou, Sainte-Chapelle and Montmartre follow. Even the streets between the sights, from Haussmann's boulevards to the Marais townhouses, count as part of the visit.

Paris is far stronger after dark. Bars spill onto the street in Oberkampf, Belleville and along the Canal Saint-Martin, South Pigalle has the cocktail bars, and the Marais has a lively gay scene. When the bars close, house and techno clubs and summer barges carry on until dawn, though some doors are selective.

Luxembourg's nights stay small. Most of it happens around the old brewery at Rives de Clausen, the Grund pubs and a few later venues in Hollerich, and the city empties at weekends as residents head off.

Luxembourg has more real landscape on its doorstep. Wooded gorges cut through the city centre, and the mossy rock passages of the Müllerthal are half an hour away. Beyond that lie the Ardennes hills and the cycle paths along the Moselle vineyards.

Paris is a city of designed green spaces, from the formal Tuileries to the cliffs of the Buttes-Chaumont and the big Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes. Its best wild escape is Fontainebleau's forest and climbing boulders, forty minutes away by train.

Both make good bases, but Paris has more choice. Versailles, Chartres, Giverny and the châteaux of Fontainebleau and Chantilly are all close. Fast trains bring Reims's Champagne houses, Rouen and the Loire within a day's reach.

Luxembourg's strength is crossing borders quickly. Roman Trier and Metz's cathedral are each under an hour away. Inside the country, there are the castles at Vianden, Echternach's abbey and the wine villages of the Moselle, a shorter but more varied list for a small country.

Paris gives children much more to do. Disneyland and Parc Astérix are near, and the city has the hands-on Cité des Sciences, a zoo, an aquarium and the natural history galleries. The parks add carousels and puppet shows. The downside is stairs in the metro, cramped hotel rooms and long queues.

Luxembourg is the easier city to move around with a buggy, thanks to its lifts and the funicular, and it is calm and uncrowded. Apart from the casemate tunnels and the small Parc Merveilleux, though, there is little built for children, so plan a few days rather than a week.

Both are easy, and Paris has a small edge in reach. Its centre is one of the best in the world for walking. Where walking runs out, a dense metro means a station is always close, and the RER goes out to Versailles and the airports. Long corridors, stairs and rush-hour crowds are the price you pay.

Luxembourg is simpler on a smaller scale. All public transport is free, the tram runs to Kirchberg, and public lifts and a funicular link the city's different levels. Trains reach the castles and the Moselle without a car.

For shopping, Paris is in a league of its own. It has the couture houses on Avenue Montaigne, Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché, and Marais concept stores. The covered passages, the Saint-Ouen flea market and the bouquinistes along the Seine add antiques, books and prints.

Luxembourg has a short, upmarket strip on the Grand-Rue and chain stores near the station. Its most distinctive buys are Villeroy & Boch porcelain and Moselle crémant. Independent design and bargains are hard to find.

Both cities are expensive, and Luxembourg is the costlier of the two. Its hotels are priced for business travellers and EU officials, and everyday meals cost more than in most of Western Europe. Free transport and a set lunch help, and some visitors sleep in Trier or Metz and come in by train.

Paris gives you more ways to save. You can eat cheaply from bakeries and markets, picnic by the river, stay in the outer arrondissements and visit the city's free museums, which keeps a careful trip within reach.

Paris offers far more on stage. Ballet plays at the Palais Garnier and opera at the Bastille, there is a full classical season at its own Philharmonie, and concerts are held in candlelit churches. Add to that the Comédie-Française, jazz cellars in Saint-Germain and cabaret in Pigalle.

Luxembourg's Philharmonie on Kirchberg is a fine concert hall, and the Grand Théâtre and Rotondes host visiting companies. Summer brings concerts in the Neimënster abbey. Still, most of what is performed comes from elsewhere.

Luxembourg is the more restful choice. Mondorf-les-Bains has drawn on its warm mineral spring since the nineteenth century, and the city itself goes quiet in the evenings, which leaves the Pétrusse and Grund paths peaceful.

Paris has no springs of its own. Its best-known option is the steam room at the Grande Mosquée's hammam, alongside hotel spas. Otherwise, rest means an hour on a terrace or a chair in the Luxembourg gardens away from the noise.