Paris or Venice?

Venice has the beach here, without question. The Lido is a short vaporetto ride from San Marco, with long stretches of fine sand and gentle, shallow water that suits small children, and Pellestrina is quieter if the cabana rows feel too orderly.

Paris has nothing comparable. Its summer river beaches and the swims in the Bassin de la Villette are a cool-off rather than a seaside day, and the nearest proper coast, the cool Channel at Deauville, is a separate trip.

Paris is one of the great eating cities, and the gap here is wide. You can eat well across a whole range: market mornings at Aligre, a zinc-counter bistro, a neo-bistro in the 11th, couscous in Belleville or pho in the 13th, with patisserie and long café terrace hours in between.

Venice has one great way of eating, the cicchetti and a glass of wine at a bacaro near the Rialto, and a lagoon kitchen of cuttlefish risotto and sarde in saor. Beyond that it takes effort to avoid the tourist restaurants, and there is little beyond Venetian and Italian cooking.

Both cities are among the richest anywhere for sights, so the difference is in kind. Paris is a city of great museums: the Louvre, Orsay's Impressionists, the Pompidou and a dozen more, set within Haussmann's boulevards and the Gothic of Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle.

Venice is a single preserved whole, with the city on the water being the main sight. Its art is more concentrated on one great school, Titian at the Frari and Tintoretto at San Rocco, and much of it hangs in the churches where it was painted, with the Biennale bringing contemporary art to the Arsenale.

Paris offers a full night out and Venice largely does not. In Paris the evening moves from canal-side bottles and crowded bars in Oberkampf and Belleville to cocktails in South Pigalle and clubs playing house and techno until dawn, chic rather than wild.

In Venice the best hour is the spritz at the bacari along the Fondamenta della Misericordia, with a few student bars in Campo Santa Margherita later on. By midnight the canals are silent, which makes a lovely late walk but not a party.

Neither city is a place for big landscapes, though Paris has a little more green to offer. Its parks and the large woods of Boulogne and Vincennes are good for running and rowing, and Fontainebleau's forests and climbing boulders are forty minutes away by train.

Venice's outdoors is the lagoon itself: kayaking or rowing among salt marshes near Torcello, with herons and flamingos, and cycling the sea walls of Pellestrina. Green space in the city is scarce. The Euganean Hills and the Prosecco hills offer gentle walking within about an hour, but the mountains are far, with the Dolomites more than two hours each way.

Both make excellent bases, with Paris holding a slight edge for range. From Paris the châteaux come first, Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chantilly, then Chartres, Giverny, and fast trains to Champagne, Rouen and the Loire.

Venice trades palaces for towns. Padua, Vicenza and Verona line up along the railway, and the Brenta villas and Prosecco hills are close. It also has day trips that need only a boat, to the glass furnaces of Murano, Burano's coloured houses and Torcello's lonely cathedral.

Paris is much the stronger family city. Disneyland and Parc Astérix are short trips out, and in town the Cité des Sciences, the Jardin des Plantes galleries and the Luxembourg's carousels and toy sailboats fill days easily, even if metro stairs and small hotel rooms take some patience.

Venice delights children as an idea, with boats for buses and no cars, and the Lido beach and Murano glass-blowing go down well. Day to day it is harder, with stepped bridges at every turn, few playgrounds and humid summer crowds.

Both centres are best on foot, but Paris is the easier city to move through. Its metro puts a station within minutes almost everywhere, the RER reaches the airports and Versailles, and bike-share fills the gaps, with stairs and rush-hour crowds as the main drawbacks.

Venice has no cars or bikes at all, so walking is the only option apart from slow, crowded vaporetto lines and costly water taxis. The twisting alleys get everyone lost, and the steps on its bridges make luggage and pushchairs hard work.

Paris is a shopping destination in its own right. It has the luxury flagships on Avenue Montaigne, the grand department stores, independent designers in the Marais, the covered passages, the Saint-Ouen flea market and food shops worth filling a suitcase from.

Venice is narrower but distinctive. It is about crafts: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers, best bought in real workshops in Dorsoduro or Castello rather than on the main routes, where cheap imports are common.

Both are expensive, and neither makes a cheap trip. Paris is a touch easier on the wallet thanks to reasonable public transport, free permanent collections in the city museums, bakery lunches and riverside picnics.

Venice adds costs Paris lacks: water transport priced for visitors and paid entry to many churches as well as the main sights. Savings come from cicchetti at the counter and sleeping in Mestre or the quieter sestieri.

Paris has the broader and deeper stage. It has two opera houses, the Paris Opera Ballet at the Palais Garnier, the Philharmonie, jazz cellars around the rue des Lombards and cabaret in Pigalle, as well as the Comédie-Française for those who follow French.

Venice centres on La Fenice, a historic house where Verdi and Rossini premiered works, plus Biennale festivals. Most visitors meet Vivaldi in candlelit church concerts of mixed quality, and there is little jazz or rock.

Neither city is a wellness destination, and they even out here, but the calm comes in different forms. Paris offers the tiled hammam of the Grande Mosquée and hotel spas, with rest found in a Luxembourg garden chair amid a fast, loud city.

Venice has no traffic noise at all, so early mornings in Castello or on Giudecca are deeply quiet. Real thermal pools are an hour away at Abano Terme, a soak Paris has no equivalent for.