8 nights in France for World Cup

Hi there,
We probably need a little more information before we can give meaningful suggestions. Will you have a car or are you relying on public transport? Do you like quieter places over busy towns/cities? Other than churches do you have any particular interests (e.g. particular eras of history, hiking, exploring quaint old towns)?

Any particular reason that Marseille is in your plans? What drew you to wanting to visit?

Best wishes,
Skyegirl

First of all, I envy you. I'll be watching from home.
As Skyegirl asked, will you be traveling by car or train? And are your arrival and departure days for Paris or Lyon? If it's Paris, you'll be getting back to Paris fairly late on the 7th. Very little time for sightseeing.
I'll assume for the moment that you're arriving in Paris on the 30th. You could "see" Paris briefly on the 30th. Strolling around on arrival day is routinely suggested as a way to combat jet lag. July 1st would appear to be a travel day, going from Paris to Lyon. If you're going by car, you could go off route a little and see the Abbey of Vezelay, dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
Lyon has a cathedral worth visiting, possibly before or after the game on the 2nd.
That leaves 4 days between games for the small towns, the Alps, Paris and Marseille. Can you do all that?

Thanks all! First off, we are open to flying in and out of wherever would be most convenient. We will rely on public transportation.

I love big cities and my girlfriend loved the smaller cities we went to recently in Italy (she particularly loved Taromina in Sicily for reference). We love to hike and I am a World War II history buff. The reason Marseille was on my list was only because we both loved Naples (call me crazy but easily my favorite city I have traveled to outside the US) and I have heard many comparisons between the two.

Knowing all of that, with only 8 days, what would you do? We are just wanting to make the most of it!

Thanks again!

I'd book directly to and from Lyon.
You have time to experience a bit of Lyon before the game begins on the 2nd. That's two nights.
If you leave right after the game, you have six nights before you need to be back in the stadium on the 7th.

You could go to Marsaille and see some very interesting religious structures: there are the ones on everybody's list, but to me the most interesting is Abbey Saint-Victor with its black Madonna, roman artifacts, and Celtic carvings in the crypt. From Marseille you can take a day trips to Cassis, Aix-en-Provence, Arles. It will be too hot to hike at the end of June unless you start very, very early. You'd get the big city, while she gets the smaller ones. I like Marseille alot, having stayed in Cassis for six months and going into Marseille 2-3 times a week.

On the other hand, if you go up into the Alps, you can visit the town of Annecy and hike.

But there is only one Taromina in this world.

Great ideas Bets. One thing - there are only 5 nights between games.
I don't know what time of day the games will be played, but if it's late, that may account for one of those 5 nights.

The Resistance Museum in Lyon is very good.

The Camp des Milles on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence (city buses go there) has been turned into a memorial/museum to those who passed through des Milles, often ending up victims of the Nazis in concentration camps. The focus is on "How could we have let this happen?"