2 Itineraries, any compelling reason to choose one over the other?

These are both fantastic itineraries...but two very different trips!
If it were me, with young kids, I would appreciate the week in the mountains in the middle of the trip. It would break things up a bit and give them a week to get out their energy, hike, swim in lakes, and look at cows. :)
The second itinerary is a lot of looking at buildings and countryside which, for kids, can get boring fast.

I don't know what you like to do, but I have traveled with kids. I tried to get my kids a pretty good mix of things to see, including some iconic "Europe" sights, so in Paris, they have all been up the Eiffel tower, climbed the stairs up the tower at Notre Dame, and done the Fat Tire Bike tours out to Versailles, complete with picnic in the gardens (which means that I have done these things with a kid three different times, and it was a hit with every one of the kids). They also loved the bike tour in Paris and at least one chose to tour the catacombs. They all liked the outside sculpture garden at the Rodin Museum too. They each had a three week trip with me, so during that time, each got to pick one day at one amusement park - the boys each picked a LEGOLAND park, but my daughter picked Disney Paris and really enjoyed her one day there when she was 11. I found it quite different from US Disney - ie, chickens walking around, cooking bread on a stick over a fire, etc.. That was 10 years ago, so maybe things have changed, and of course, there are still rides and everything. We just did it as a day trip from Paris.

I personally loved Normandy, but I didn't take that trip with my kids, so I wasn't seeking out kid-friendly activities. We toured the castle in Falaise which the kids would have liked, and I think they would have like Mont St. Michel. We toured a lot of WWII sites and did a lot of fine dining, which would not have been as kid-friendly, but I am sure you could create a fun itinerary there.

I haven't been to Amboise since I was 15, but my kids would have enjoyed a day or two of visiting Chateaux and I think there would be a lot of opportunity for walking and biking nearby. It has also been a long time since I was in Burguncy or Alsace, so I don't know about the kid-friendly activities there. I can say that for my 11 year olds, any bike tour, anywhere, was a big hit.

The kids also loved the high mountains. We were in Switzerland, not the French Alps, but hiking was great fun. I did take one of the boys to Chateau de Chillon in Montreux and he loved it. Open air Museums, high mountain lifts and animals (cows walking in the street, goats in fields and petting areas in the open air museums) were popular.

I'd do a week in Paris, a week in Burgundy and a week for Normandy and a bit of Brittany. But it is all good. I would also organize to head to Burgundy or Normandy on arrival and finish in Paris and fly home from there. The first day is wasted anyway - use it to get to the furthest spot and finish where you fly home from so there is not rush back to home base for the trip home. Here is a little Burgundy:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/burgundy/
You can find similar snapshots in the photo journal for Normandy.

Similar to Janet, I would do
4 days Normandy
3 days Loire
4 days Alsace
4 days Burgundy
6 days Paris

My grandkids loved Paris much more than i expected... so I would be sure to include that. Normandy is wonderful and the 11 year old is plenty old enough to understand. I would try to add a night at Mont st. Michel.... it is such a unique experience.

I also do like the idea of some mountain time for parents to relax and regroup and kids to enjoy nature. It's a great time to introduce them to European travel. I would get each of them involved a little bit in the planning. Let each choose one place/activity and do a little research that is age appropriate.
I always make sure the kids write in a journal. I have devised a trip log that is almost a fill in the blank book. One page for each day, then lots of blank pages in the back for sketching, additional writing, etc. I always bring art supplies (sketching and watercolor pencils, good watercolor paper and some black sharpies... use the same as India ink)

I will also make a new music cd for each trip with some music appropriate to the country and we listen to it while traveling. I have always asked for suggestions here and have a whole new array of music that I had never known about. Great to play in the car or in the hotel in the evening. It will always bring back the memories of that trip.

Thanks everybody for these great insights. I will keep you all posted on what we end up doing.

-Matt

Matt - you did such an incredible job planning your last trip that I would hesitate to offer you any advice!! Either one of these will be wonderful, and I know you will do everything to make sure you get the very best out of either trip. Option 1 gets you really different flavors, where with option 2, the distances between where you're going seem a little less. I don't see any red flags with either idea.

I think that Frankfurt is also an option for flights from Strasbourg - I feel like locals take some special bus or something that is included. Maybe I am imagining this! I mean obviously it's a couple of hours or more . . .

Will be interested to hear what you end up deciding on.

Thanks Kim.

What's been bugging me is trying to find a way to sanely come up with a way to see both Brittany and Alsace in one trip, while sticking to our approach of 7-day stays in gites (we need to self-cater and the gites offer considerable $$ savings over hotels and B&Bs) in all regions and not going over 3 weeks away from work. Another challenge is not burning days on the front and back end of the trip while avoiding long jet-lagged drives in (what has to be) an automatic transmission car (which can be picked up only in the major airports and select rail stations). Finally, flying Icelandair saves us a lot of money, so we are focused on Paris, Zurich, Geneva, or Frankfort airports only.

I think I've got it worked out. Thanks to Europecar's recent addition of automatic transmission cars to the Nantes railway station (new this year! - note that they've also added Dijon too!), I think we will do the following:

1. Fly into Paris, train to Nantes, pick up car
2. Spend 2 nights in the Carnac area (in a B&B) of Brittany, visiting the stones and the south coast
3. Spend 5 nights in a gite (the one I want has a 4-night minimum) in Dinan seeing the north Brittany/west Normandy sites
4. Spend 7 days/nights in Burgundy (5 hour drive from Dinan)
5. Spend 7 day/nights in Colmar
6. One night in Zurich on the way home

That's the plan for the moment. Thanks again for your input.

-Matt