Marseille or Toulouse?

This is the biggest gap between the two cities. Marseille lives on its seafront. The broad Prado beaches with lawns behind them suit an easy afternoon, while locals swim off the rocks at the Vallon des Auffes and the Frioul islands have small coves. The Calanques inlets are worth giving half a day to.

Toulouse has no coast. Swimming means the supervised lakes at Sesquières and La Ramée, or a hotel pool, and Gruissan on the Mediterranean is a long day out of about two hours each way.

The two eat equally well, but they eat very different things. Marseille's table is the sea and the wider Mediterranean: bouillabaisse in the Corniche harbours, panisses, and the Comorian, Armenian and North African stalls of Noailles. It also has the stronger top tier, though the Vieux-Port has its share of tired set menus.

Toulouse cooks the meat-heavy food of the south-west: cassoulet, duck confit and foie gras, with Armagnac to finish. Its everyday strength is the cheap set lunch, ideally eaten upstairs at the Victor Hugo market.

The two are about level, but the experience is different. Toulouse's heritage sits in one consistent rose-brick centre, with the great Romanesque basilica of Saint-Sernin, the palm-tree vault of the Jacobins and the Renaissance mansions. Two full days covers the essentials.

Marseille's 2,600 years are scattered through a working port. You climb to Notre-Dame de la Garde, cross the footbridge from Fort Saint-Jean to the MuCEM, take a boat to the Château d'If and travel out to Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse. It takes more effort and gives you more contrast.

Both are informal student-and-terrace cities rather than clubbing destinations, and the main difference is the season. Marseille peaks in summer, with graffiti-covered bars around Cours Julien and La Plaine and parties by the sea or on rooftops. It thins out in winter, and some central streets feel edgy late at night.

Toulouse is busiest in term time, around the cheap bars of Place Saint-Pierre on the river and the wine bars of Carmes. It goes quiet in July and August, when the students leave.

Marseille is far ahead here. The Calanques national park starts in its southern suburbs, with the coastal path to Sormiou, Sugiton and En-Vau, famous climbing cliffs, and kayaking and diving around the Riou islands. The one catch is summer, when fire risk can close the massifs.

Toulouse sits on gentle farmland, so the nearby pleasures are flat bike rides along the Canal du Midi towpath. Its real outdoors is the Pyrenees, where there is high-valley hiking and winter skiing that Marseille cannot offer, but they are a drive of up to two hours.

Both make good bases, but Marseille has more within close reach. Aix is half an hour away and Cassis is nearer still. Arles and Avignon's papal palace are an hour or less by train, and the Luberon villages and Bandol vineyards are within a car ride.

Toulouse has fewer options, but two of them are outstanding: the walled Cité of Carcassonne and Albi's painted cathedral, each about an hour by train. Moissac's cloister and Cordes-sur-Ciel help fill a longer stay.

Toulouse is the easier city with children, thanks largely to aerospace. The Cité de l'espace fills a whole day, families can walk inside a Concorde at the aircraft museum, and there is a safari park on the western edge. The flat centre suits pushchairs.

Marseille is at its best for children on the beach and the water: the Prado lawns and Parc Borély, and boat trips to the Frioul islands. Away from the shore there is no zoo or aquarium, and the steep, busy streets are tiring.

Toulouse is much simpler to get around. Nearly everything sits inside the ring of boulevards, the centre is flat and easy to walk, and two automated metro lines and a bike scheme cover the rest. Only the aircraft sites and the lakes need a bus or a short drive.

In Marseille the core from the Vieux-Port to Cours Julien is walkable but steep. Beyond it the city spreads over hills and bays, and buses to the beaches and Calanques trailheads get stuck in traffic. The summer ferries to Pointe Rouge and L'Estaque are the pleasant way round this.

Neither is a shopping city, and neither has a luxury district. Toulouse is slightly more rounded, with mainstream chains on Rue d'Alsace-Lorraine and independent boutiques and antiques around Saint-Étienne. Its best souvenirs are edible: violet sweets, duck confit and Armagnac.

Marseille's buys are craft rather than fashion: green cubes of olive-oil soap, painted santon figures from Le Panier, and fabrics and teas from the crowded lanes of Noailles.

Costs are much the same in both, middling for France and not budget. The pressure falls at different times. Marseille's rooms near the port and beaches climb in July and August, while Toulouse's hotels fill up during trade fairs and aerospace events.

Both cities let you eat cheaply: North African snacks and market food in Marseille, the set lunch and the student quarters in Toulouse.

Marseille's stages lean popular and Mediterranean, while Toulouse's lean classical. In Marseille that means the city's place in French hip-hop, theatre, dance and concerts under one roof at the Friche la Belle de Mai in the old tobacco factory, and world music at the Fiesta des Suds in autumn. The art deco Opéra and the national theatre in the old fish market at La Criée cover the formal side.

Toulouse is the better pick for an evening of opera, ballet or symphony. The Théâtre du Capitole has its own company, the Orchestre National du Capitole plays in the round Halle aux Grains, and the Jacobins cloister hosts a piano festival in late summer. Its riverside Rio Loco festival brings world music in early summer.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Marseille makes slowing down slightly easier. You can have a long lunch in a small Corniche harbour, sit on a terrace by the sea, or stay in Cassis nearby and come into the city by day.

Toulouse offers shaded squares and gentle bike rides along the Canal du Midi. Its real thermal springs, at Luchon and Ax-les-Thermes, are up to two hours away in the Pyrenees and work best as an overnight trip.