Strasbourg or Toulouse?

Neither city has a beach, and neither is worth choosing for swimming. Strasbourg's gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee are on the tram line, which makes a hot afternoon easy, while Toulouse's lakes at Sesquières and La Ramée are on the city's edge and its nearest sea, the Mediterranean at Gruissan, is a long day out.

Both are cities of hearty, rich cooking, and they are equally good to eat in, but the flavours differ. Strasbourg has the Franco-German table of choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée, eaten in wood-panelled winstubs with a pichet of Alsace white, and a stronger fine-dining tier in the city and the nearby villages.

Toulouse is duck country, with cassoulet, confit and magret, red wines from Fronton and Gaillac, and Armagnac to finish. Its everyday strength is the set lunch, best eaten at the counters above the Victor Hugo market. In both cities the range of other cuisines is limited.

Strasbourg has the edge. Its whole centre is UNESCO-listed, from the pink sandstone cathedral with its astronomical clock to the half-timbered lanes of Petite France and the imperial avenues of the Neustadt, and the Palais Rohan puts three museums under one roof.

Toulouse is a different kind of city to look at, built in uniform rose-red brick, with Saint-Sernin and the palm-tree vault of the Jacobins as its high points. Its unusual extra is aerospace, with aircraft museums and the space centre on the outskirts, which Strasbourg cannot match.

Toulouse goes out far more. Place Saint-Pierre on the Garonne is packed with cheap bars and terraces that spill onto the quays, the Carmes and Daurade streets add wine and cocktail bars for an older crowd, and there is a real electronic scene, though it quietens in July and August.

Strasbourg's evenings are bar-based and gentler, in the student streets of the Krutenau and around Place Saint-Étienne or on the summer terraces by the river. There are few clubs, and on weeknights the city is largely asleep by midnight.

The two are close, and both sit on flat plains with the real landscape an hour or more away. Strasbourg has two ranges to choose from, the Vosges above the vineyards to the west and the Black Forest to the east, plus some of the best level cycling in France along the Rhine.

Toulouse looks south to the Pyrenees, which are higher and wilder, with serious hiking, cycling climbs and ski stations, but they are a longer drive. Nearer to the city, the Canal du Midi towpaths and the Aveyron gorges fill the gap.

Strasbourg is the better base. Colmar is half an hour away by train, the wine-route villages such as Riquewihr and Eguisheim lie between them, and across the Rhine come Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Heidelberg, with Basel and Nancy also on the rail network. Two countries' worth of outings make a long stay easy to fill.

Toulouse has fewer but very strong options. Carcassonne's walled Cité and brick Albi are each about an hour by train, and Moissac's cloister is close by, but much of the rest, from Cordes-sur-Ciel to Foix, works best with a car.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Strasbourg's appeal is gentle and outdoor: boat trips round the Grande Ile, the storks and rowing boats of the Orangerie, and Europa-Park, one of Europe's largest theme parks, an hour away.

Toulouse wins on attractions inside the city, above all the Cité de l'espace with its full-size Ariane rocket, and the chance to walk through a Concorde. July and August heat is the drawback there.

Strasbourg is the easier city to move around. The old town island takes about twenty minutes to cross on foot, trams reach almost everywhere a visitor goes, even across the border to Kehl, and the separated cycle lanes often make a bike the fastest choice.

Toulouse's centre inside the boulevards is also flat and walkable, and its two automated metro lines are quick. But the space centre, the aircraft museum and the lakes need a bus or a drive, and its rural day trips depend more on a car.

There is little to separate them: both have mainstream chains and a department store in the centre, independents in the older lanes and no luxury district. The difference is in what you take home. Strasbourg offers Alsace wine, Soufflenheim pottery and a Christmas market of crafts, while Toulouse is better for violet sweets, Armagnac and its sprawling Sunday market around Saint-Sernin.

Costs are much the same: both are cheaper than Paris but far from budget cities. In Strasbourg the trap is hotel prices during the Christmas market and the European Parliament sessions, while in Toulouse it is the big trade fairs, and the set lunch is the best way to eat well for less.

Both have a full season of opera and orchestral music, so the difference is in emphasis. Toulouse is strongest in classical music, with the Capitole's own opera and ballet company, a well-regarded orchestra in the round Halle aux Grains, and summer piano recitals in the Jacobins cloister.

Strasbourg leans more towards the new and the theatrical, with the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the autumn Musica festival of contemporary music, alongside the Opéra national du Rhin.

Strasbourg is far better for a restful stay. Its early twentieth-century Bains municipaux offer tiled pools, a hammam and saunas in the centre, and the Friedrichsbad and Caracalla baths of Baden-Baden are an easy outing across the Rhine.

Toulouse has no bathing tradition of its own, just hotel spas and summer open-air pools. Its relaxation comes from long lunches and slow rides along the Canal du Midi, and the Pyrenean spa towns are really an overnight trip.