Favorite French Cities not on a RS tour

I'm not sure what all are included in the tours, but in Provence we really enjoyed rousillon (a few hours would suffice) and on the Côte d'Azur we enjoyed St. Paul de Vence (few hours) and gourdon (small hill town...gorgeous views...great combined with a day trip to St. Paul...probably spend an hour there tops). We also passed thru a place called tourettes sur loup (oh, my spelling could be very wrong there) between st p and gourdon that looked charming, but we didn't stop.

Basically, I love taking photos and these places were very picturesque.

Nicole's response, above, reminded me that Vence is a real French city, that doesn't survive just on tourism. It does have an interesting medieval center with a cathedral, an outdoor market, and good restaurants. It's also a good base for visiting St. Paul d.V., Tourettes sur Loup, and Eze.
St. Paul is notable for the Fondation Maeght, an art museum containing many works by modern artists, such as Miro and Picasso. The sculpture garden is just fantastic. Eze (the upper town) is also medieval, with stunning views of the Mediterranean and the nearby countryside. Tourettes is a bit quieter than the others, with, again, a charming medieval quarter.

I think you could also do a day trip from Vence to the Gorge du Verdon, or you could stay over in Moustiers-Ste-Marie. Moustiers has a ceramics museum; it was once a center for the production of fine china. There's still a lot of pottery being produced there. The gorge, itself, is quite spectacular.

I don't know if these are on RS tours or not, but my favorite large cities outside of Paris are Lyon and Nancy. Lyon has lots of interesting sights as well as a very nice vibe (the chapter on Lyon in Rick Steves France is excellent, if you want a preview). And Nancy is an undiscovered gem, particularly if you like Art Nouveau or fancy glassware. The main square is breathtaking both by day and by night. I actually preferred Nancy to Strasbourg and Colmar (all seen on the same trip).

As a bonus, these cities are easy to splice into itineraries. Lyon is between Paris and Provence, and Nancy is between Paris and Alsace, with frequent and fast trains connecting these places. I did two nights in Nancy, but even one full day would be good. Lyon has several days of sights, but as I said it's a nice place to relax too.

If you do go to Strasbourg, don't miss the Museum of Alsatian Life. If I ever go back, it would be to spend more time there.

Pezenas, Narbonne , Amiens, Rennes, St. Guillaume le Desert, Montpellier, Albi. All are beautiful and not on the main tourist map! One or two days in any of them will be plenty!

Will Rogers said "I never met a man I didn't like." Paraphrasing that, I never visited a place in France I didn't like. I hadn't traveled much outside of Paris until June this year. I started in Chamonix (the end of an RS Alpine tour) with a car and drove through Beaujolais, Bourgogne and Alsace. One charming village after another, all with tourist information offices with lots of maps, brochures, and ideas. After 10 days, I ended in Strasbourg. I visited chateaux, abbeys, a couple of small museums, several centuries' old churches, a colony of friendly Barbary apes in a nature preserve (Monkey Mountain), shopped in weekly markets, ate great food at reasonable prices, sampled local wines and more.

I will definitely do more driving trips through France. I have a feeling that any region you choose will be great.

Le Puy-en-Velay and Autun come to mind.

Thank you , everyone, for your responses & ideas! I'll check them out this weekend.

We have always traveled by train and the occasional bus in Europe, so I'll see what type of connections are available - may need to consider driving for a portion of this trip. Also, I should point out that we speak the beginner basics of the French language (and probably botch some of those pronunciations!)

Driving in France, outside the big cities, is easy and fun, and gives you great flexibility. The autoroutes are very efficient, and the secondary roads will take you to towns and villages that will never be on any bus-based tour but will enchant you. The RS tours cover most of what most people would consider the "top destinations" in France, but by their nature they can't cover everything worth seeing.

I'll second Ben's suggestion of Vienne. I was struck by the quantity of Roman ruins and preservation.

Thanks so much, Ben, for the details for Lyon! I'm printing your reply - lots of great information.