Paris or Tokyo?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Tokyo comes closer. About an hour south by train, the dark volcanic sand at Kamakura's Yuigahama, Zushi and Enoshima offers real sea swimming in July and August, when Sagami Bay is warm, though summer weekends are crowded.

Paris has only its summer river beaches, outdoor swimming at the Bassin de la Villette and in the Seine, and some fine Art Deco pools. The nearest coast is the cool Channel at Deauville and Trouville in Normandy, about two hours away, and the season there is short.

Either city will feed you superbly. The difference is in how eating is organised. Paris eats around the neighbourhood: the boulangerie, the cheese shop, markets on set mornings such as Aligre, zinc-counter bistros, natural-wine bars and the small neo-bistros of the east. Immigrant kitchens add a great deal, from couscous in Belleville to pho in the 13th, and pastry and the café terrace are rituals of their own.

Tokyo runs on specialisation, with counters that have made one dish for decades, from station soba and ramen to sushi, tempura and kaiseki. The depachika food halls, the Tsukiji outer market and the yakitori alleys of Yurakucho are worth a visit for their own sake. Sake, whisky and pour-over coffee get the same care that Paris gives to wine.

Paris is the stronger city for sights, and it keeps them close together. The Louvre, the Orsay, the Pompidou, the Musée Rodin and Cluny, the Gothic of Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle, and Haussmann's unified boulevards turn the centre into one long walk along the UNESCO-listed Seine.

Tokyo lost most of its old buildings in 1923 and 1945, so its heritage survives in pockets: Senso-ji in Asakusa, Meiji Jingu, the Imperial Palace moats and the lanes of Yanaka. Its museums are its strength, above all the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, and its modern architecture is a sight of its own. What it lacks is a continuous historic centre like that of Paris.

Tokyo has the deeper and more unusual night out. Golden Gai's two hundred tiny bars, buildings stacked with whisky, vinyl and cocktail bars, and izakaya around every station give it a range Paris cannot match. The clubs of Shibuya and Roppongi run until the first morning trains, and the last train around midnight forces a choice between going home and staying out until dawn.

Paris has a slower night that starts on the terrace. There are wine bars and crowded bars in Oberkampf, Belleville and along the Canal Saint-Martin, cocktails in South Pigalle and the gay scene in the Marais. Bars close around 2am, then the clubs and summer barges take over, and doors can be selective.

Tokyo's trains reach real mountains. Mount Takao is an hour west, and the Okutama valleys inside Tokyo's own boundaries have gorges and cedar ridges. Hakone and the Fuji Five Lakes bring Mount Fuji into view, and the climb to the summit is open in July and August.

Paris has parks and gentle countryside instead. The Buttes-Chaumont and the woods of Boulogne and Vincennes are for running and rowing, and the forest of Fontainebleau, forty minutes away, has sandstone boulders and marked trails. It suits walkers and cyclists more than hikers.

Paris has the longer and richer list. Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chantilly are under an hour away, with Chartres and Giverny close behind. Fast trains put Reims and the Champagne houses, Rouen, Tours for the Loire châteaux and even Brussels within a day.

Tokyo is still an excellent base, with Kamakura's Great Buddha and Zen temples, Nikko's Toshogu shrine, Yokohama, the merchant houses of Kawagoe, and Hakone's lakes and inns. Kyoto, though, is just too far for an easy day, which leaves fewer of the country's great sites in reach.

Tokyo is the easier city with children. Lifts and baby rooms in the stations, spotless public toilets and safe streets make each day smooth, and Disneyland and DisneySea across the bay, Ueno Zoo and the aquariums fill plenty of days. The heat of July and August is the main thing to plan around.

Paris has its own strong list, from Disneyland Paris and Parc Astérix to the Cité des Sciences and the carousels and toy boats of the Luxembourg gardens. Daily life with children is harder there, with stair-only metro stations, small hotel rooms and long museum queues.

Both centres reward walking, but Tokyo's trains are in another class. The Yamanote loop, the overground lines and the metro form the densest network anywhere. Trains run to the minute, signs are in English, one card covers every journey, and most sights are a short walk from a station. The catches are the midnight shutdown and the huge stations at Shinjuku and Tokyo.

Paris is more compact, and walking along the river from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower is often the best way to get around. Its metro is dense too, but long corridors, stairs without lifts, confusing changes onto the RER and pickpockets on the tourist lines make it harder going.

Paris is the place for fashion's great houses and for things with a past. The luxury flagships line Avenue Montaigne, and Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché are department stores worth a visit in their own right. For antiques and old paper there are the Saint-Ouen flea market, the covered passages and the bouquinistes along the Seine.

Tokyo sorts its shopping into specialist districts, each given over to a single trade: electronics and anime in Akihabara, knives in Kappabashi, books in Jimbocho and vintage clothing in Harajuku and Shimokitazawa. Lacquer, ceramics and washi of real quality are easy to find, and the careful wrapping makes even a small stationery purchase feel like a gift.

Tokyo is clearly easier on the budget. Ramen, set lunches, conveyor-belt sushi and convenience-store meals are cheap and good, and many shrines, parks and gardens cost little or nothing. Hotel rooms are where the money goes, especially in cherry-blossom season and Golden Week.

In Paris almost everything costs more: small and pricey hotel rooms, terrace drinks, restaurant meals and full admission at the big museums. Bakeries, markets, lunchtime set menus, the free permanent collections of the city's own museums and a picnic by the river soften the bill, but it remains the more expensive stay.

Both cities have a deep stage life, and in both the language gets in the way, since spoken theatre is in French in Paris and almost all in Japanese in Tokyo. Paris leads on the Western classical tradition, with the Palais Garnier and its ballet, the Opéra Bastille, the Philharmonie and chamber concerts in the Sainte-Chapelle, along with jazz cellars and the cabaret of Pigalle.

Tokyo's draw is what you cannot see anywhere else: kabuki at the Kabuki-za, where single-act tickets make an easy introduction, along with Noh and the Takarazuka Revue. Suntory Hall and the NHK Symphony carry classical music, and hundreds of live houses in Shimokitazawa and Koenji host bands every night.

Tokyo has a real bathing culture and Paris does not. Sento painted with Mount Fuji survive in the old residential districts, some fed by dark mineral spring water. Large complexes add outdoor pools and rest rooms, and saunas are taken seriously. Hakone's onsen inns are about ninety minutes away, though many baths turn away guests with tattoos.

Paris has the tiled hammam of the Grande Mosquée, a few neighbourhood hammams and hotel spas, but no bathing tradition of its own. Calm there means a chair in the Luxembourg gardens or an evening walk by the Seine.