Parisians love to holiday in these French regions - but would you?

These Gallic neighbours - Brittany and Normandy - charm with wild coastlines, rich histories and lovely cities. But which one gets your doff of the beret? Our experts help you decide.

By Amy Cooper

Welcome to France's other Olympics, in which two age-old rivals compete for supremacy in cider, crepes and ownership of an outcrop. North-western next-door neighbours Brittany and Normandy have been going tete-a-tete on all these fronts for centuries, and it's unlikely any will ever be suitably resolved - especially the matter of Mont-Saint-Michel, the picturesque thousand-year-old abbey on a tidal island owned by Normandy but surrounded by a bay belonging to Brittany.

To be honest, you might as well border-hop and mount the Mont. But then you should say au revoir to old Norm and head west into la belle Brittany. France's largest peninsula boasts the nation's longest coastline, and what a magnifique coastline it is: a rugged 2860km drama of majestic cliffs, capes and panoramic bays stretching out to Europe's westernmost point in the Atlantic, with the whole lovely lot linked by the 2000km walking route G34.

On any stretch, you'll be surrounded by spectacle, whether boggling at beaut blush boulders along the Pink Granite Coast, or being bedazzled along Finistere's Lighthouse Route, the world's densest concentration of lighthouses. Some perch on promontories, others rise from the surf or loom on islands like le Vierge, where the world's tallest freestone lighthouse is 82.5 metres high.

Brittany's coastal towns are medieval and maritime magic, with ramparts, castles and cobbled streets. Saint-Malo, also known as "pirate city", should be on everyone's swash-buckle list for its buccaneer-rich nautical history. Today you can sail in Saint-Malo harbour on a pirate ship replica so fearsomely accurate it makes Captain Jack's Black Pearl look like a bath toy.

In port city Brest, the National Maritime Museum is housed in the 3rd-century Brest Castle - a superb structure, but a mere enfant compared to Brittany's most ancient landmarks. The region's myriad of megalithic monuments dates back to 4500 BCE. The 3000 Carnac Stones are older than Stonehenge, as mystifying as the Paris Olympics opening ceremony itself.

Most of all, though, Brittany wins at just being French. It's the birthplace of the two top Gallic stereotypes: the beret-wearing, bike-riding onion seller, and the navy-and-white striped sweater. The former began with the 19th-century Onion Johnnies, cycling Breton onion salesmen, today immortalised in the Onion Museum in their hometown Roscoff. The Breton Stripe started around the same time, as a Breton sailors' uniform, later popularised by Coco Chanel. Does it get more French than that? Oui! Those clever Bretons also invented the sardine tin to preserve their native ocean snack, as seen in the region's various cool cannery tours and museums. It's a no-briner. You should visit Brittany because you can cancan.

By Mal Chenu

This week has been all about turning our bleary eyes to the Paris Olympics and celebrating all things Parisian, from the Seine floaters to that weird and wonderful opening ceremony. Paris is the most visited city in the world but Normandy is where Parisians like to holiday. Indeed, the seaside resort of Deauville is so popular with Parisians, it is nicknamed "the 21st arrondissement".

Normandy is more than just the playground of prosperous Parisians. It is an eclectic, intriguing region, filled with spectacular cities, gorgeous villages, medieval castles and abbeys, historical sites, magnificent landscapes and camembert. The "floating" 13th-century Gothic island monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel is so cool that Brittany tries to claim it but it is as Norman as the 1066 conquest that changed the world.

The legendary Bayeux Tapestry recounts the Norman conquest of England by William the Bastard, later to become William the Conqueror after a much-needed image makeover. Vivid, bloody, bawdy and unashamedly pro-Norman (it was commissioned by the Bastard's brother, the local bishop), the 70-metre-long strip includes Halley's Comet, which made a portentous appearance earlier in that fateful year, and culminates in gory scenes from the Battle of Hastings, where Harold got one in the eye.

Some 878 years later - in 1944 - an invasion in the opposite direction over la Manche (the English Channel to Anglophones) took place when the Allies started kicking the Nazis back to where they came from. The D-Day landings in Normandy led to the eventual liberation of Europe and are celebrated and commemorated in many ways and places, including the landing beaches, monuments, museums and cemeteries.

Normandy's larger cities include Rouen, Caen, Le Havre and Cherbourg. Romantic Rouen is known for its 14th-century astronomical clock, imposing cathedral, half-timbered buildings and the French Grand Prix.

Artists of the Impressionist school were drawn to Normandy to ply their trade. Claude Monet was the leading light of the movement and his house and gardens at Giverny are one of the region's major attractions. And best of all, just to the south of Normandy is the Pays de la Loire region, where you will find the hamlet of Chenu, population 400, which has inexplicably not yet been recognised as the "Paris of the West".

Brittany is nice enough but it has to tip its beret to Normandy in this tete-a-tete.