Marseille or Strasbourg?

This is the widest gap between the two cities. Marseille is a seaside city: the broad Prado beaches with lawns behind them, little coves along the Corniche for an early swim, ferries out to the Frioul islands and, above all, the clear water of the Calanques. The mistral and closures after heavy rain are the main things that can spoil a beach day.

Strasbourg is far inland. Its summer swimming is in old gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which you can reach by tram. They are pleasant on a hot afternoon, but they are no reason to choose the city.

The food is equally good in both cities but quite different in character. Marseille cooks with the sea and the wider Mediterranean: bouillabaisse in the harbours of the Corniche, chickpea panisses, the spice shops and North African bakeries of Noailles, then pastis and Cassis rosé.

Strasbourg's cooking is Alsatian and much heavier: choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée in wood-panelled winstubs, washed down with a pichet of Riesling. It suits a cold evening better than a hot one. Both have a strong fine-dining tier, and both have tourist traps to avoid, around the Vieux-Port in Marseille and around the cathedral in Strasbourg.

Strasbourg has the stronger and more concentrated sightseeing. The pink cathedral with its astronomical clock, the half-timbered houses of Petite France and the German-built Neustadt form one UNESCO-listed ensemble you can walk through, and the Palais Rohan holds three museums under one roof. Two or three days covers it comfortably.

Marseille has the deeper history, going back to its Greek founding, but its sights are scattered through a working city rather than gathered in a preserved core. Notre-Dame de la Garde, the MuCEM beside Fort Saint-Jean, the Vieille Charité in Le Panier and the Château d'If are well worth seeing, but expect to move around between them.

Marseille gives you much more to do after dark. Cours Julien and La Plaine fill with graffitied bars and pavement tables until late, the Vieux-Port terraces keep going into the night, and electronic nights in old warehouses and rooftop parties by the sea add some clubbing, mostly in summer.

Strasbourg's evenings are pleasant but short. Students keep the bars and beer cellars of Krutenau busy, and the riverside terraces stay full on summer evenings, but there are only a handful of clubs and most of the city is quiet by midnight on weeknights.

Marseille has the more striking landscape, and it starts at the city's edge. The Calanques national park offers white limestone ridges, a celebrated coastal walk, sport climbing and diving around the Riou islands. Montagne Sainte-Victoire and the Sainte-Baume forest are within an hour. In summer, fire risk can close the massifs.

Strasbourg itself is flat and green, best explored by bike along the Rhine, where storks and beavers live in the riverside forests. For real hills you go an hour west to the Vosges or east to the Black Forest.

Both cities are superb bases, and Marseille edges ahead on the sheer number of famous names close by. Aix is half an hour away, Arles and Avignon are about an hour by train, Nîmes and the Pont du Gard fit into a long day, and Cassis and the Côte Bleue harbours are almost next door.

Strasbourg's appeal is the two countries. On the French side you have Colmar and the Alsace wine route with Riquewihr and Haut-Koenigsbourg. On the German side, Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Heidelberg are within reach, with Basel to the south. In both regions the cities are easy by train, but the villages are easier with a car or, in Alsace, a bike.

Strasbourg is the easier city with children. It is flat and compact, with trams and safe cycle paths. Boat trips around the Grande Ile, the Orangerie's playgrounds and rowing boats, and the hands-on Le Vaisseau science centre fill the days, and Europa-Park is about an hour away.

Marseille comes into its own for families at the Prado beaches and in Parc Borély, and the boat trips to the Frioul islands are popular with children. But there is no zoo, aquarium or theme park, and the steep streets, traffic and summer heat make a buggy hard work. Families tend to stay near the southern beaches.

Strasbourg is far simpler to get around. You can cross the island centre on foot in about twenty minutes, trams reach the station, the European quarter and even Kehl across the Rhine, and the separated bike lanes make cycling the quickest option. You won't need a car until you head for the wine villages.

Marseille's core, from the Vieux-Port to Cours Julien, is walkable if hilly, and it has two metro lines and a few trams. Beyond the centre, though, the city sprawls, and buses to the beaches and Calanques trailheads crawl through traffic. The little summer ferries to Pointe Rouge and L'Estaque are a welcome way round the roads.

Neither city is a fashion destination. The difference is in what each is best for. In Marseille the best buys are traditional: olive-oil soap, santon figures from the Le Panier workshops, and fabrics, teas and kitchenware from the crowded lanes of Noailles.

Strasbourg's shops are easier to browse in one walk, from the chains around Place Kléber to the delicatessens and bookshops near the cathedral. Its souvenirs lean towards Alsace wine, Soufflenheim pottery and gingerbread, and in December the Christmas market takes over the centre.

The two cost much the same, roughly what you would expect of a large French city outside Paris. What changes is the expensive time to go. Marseille's beach and harbour hotels climb steeply in July and August, while Strasbourg's rooms jump during the Christmas market and when the European Parliament sits.

Day to day, both are kind to a careful budget. In Marseille that means market food, pizza and free walking in the Calanques. In Strasbourg it means tarte flambée, wine by the pichet and a free stroll around the cathedral and the old town.

The two are evenly matched, but the programmes differ in character. Marseille leans popular and Mediterranean, with a strong place in French hip-hop, the Friche la Belle de Mai in its old tobacco factory, and the Fiesta des Suds bringing world music each autumn. It also has the art deco Opéra and the Criée theatre.

Strasbourg's strength is classical and contemporary. It has the Opéra national du Rhin, a full Philharmonic season, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the Musica festival of new music. Either way, plan your evenings around the season rather than hoping to stumble on something.

Strasbourg is the better place to slow down. It has its own early twentieth-century public baths with a hammam and saunas, the grand thermal baths of Baden-Baden are less than an hour away, and canal-side walks and long winstub lunches set a gentle pace.

Marseille has little to offer here. There are a few local hammams and some hotel spas, but the centre is loud and dense. Its restful moments are a slow lunch by a Corniche harbour or a terrace afternoon, and visitors who want real calm tend to stay in Cassis instead.