First time London/France

From London fly to Nice. From Nice take a direct train to Lyon. From Lyon take a direct train to Paris: https://www.sncf-connect.com/en-en/. Personally, I would remove Lyon and focus on London, the riviera and Paris.

With London as your first stop (meaning likely a jetlagged, sleep-deprived arrival for at least some of you), four nights only gives you three fully-usable days. We nearly all have to make compromises to fit our desired destinations in the time we have available; will three days in London allow you to cover your top sightseeing goals? In a large city like London, you're likely to spend some of your time just moving from place to place, even though the Underground is very helpful.

I enjoyed Lyon a lot, and you'll have no trouble filling your time there (which will be roughly 2-1/2 days if you take a morning flight). However, I'd consider dropping Lyon from this trip to allow more time elsewhere. There are aspects of Lyon that are somewhat reminiscent of Paris (to me), so I don't think it provides as great a contrast with the capital as some other French cities would. For a first, short trip, I'd tend to head elsewhere, though I recognize that some others will probably disagree.

I think going all the way to the south coast of France for only 3 nights (2-1/2 days, roughly) is not advisable when you're going to have to head next to Paris. Most folks heading to Nice want to see not only that city but also some of the coastal towns and nearby hill villages, and it takes longer than 2-1/2 days to do that. I understand the desire for a beach day, but to go all the way to southern France for that reason is, I think, very ill-advised. I'd want more than 3 nights to justify the travel time. If you dropped Lyon and could devote perhaps 5 nights to the south, I'd feel better about it.

Marseille isn't the best base for Provence if you're interested in places like Avignon, Arles, Nimes, Uzes, and villages in the Luberon. Marseille is an interesting city, but it doesn't show up on very many first trips to France, and I think there's a reason for that. Most visitors head elsewhere, at least until they've spent a good bit of time in France. What draws you to Marseille as a possible 3-night stop?

The train trip from Avignon, Arles or Marseille back to Paris would be a lot faster than the trip from Nice, as I believe you've already discovered. As for the inbound trip, if you skipped Lyon, you'd want to fly from London to southern France, which would probably mean landing in Nice or Marseille.

I'd suggest a different time allocation:

London 5 nights (or maybe 6)
Nice or a Provencal city: 4 or 5 nights
Paris 5 nights

If you're not wedded to the idea of heading south (where you may be competing with French vacationers for hotel rooms if your trip is in July or August), there are other options closer to Paris that many people enjoy, including the Loire Valley and Normandy. France is a wonderful country with a great variety of destinations; you can hardly go wrong, but it's easy to spend a lot of time sitting on planes, trains and buses if your destinations are not near each other.

I would take Marypats suggestions .
I’d do 3 days London , fly to Nice for 4 nights ( from there visit Cannes and Monaco easily by train for day trips ) , then I’d take train back to Paris for last 4 nights .

I’ve been to Lyon , and it’s enjoyable enough , but with such a short trip I’d remove it .

I’d go-

5 london
3 nice area
2 Lyon
5 paris

Thanks for the great feedback so far. I edited the original topic to reflect feedback so far. The big takeaways:

• Look beyond Lyon. What would people suggest? Bordeaux? Loire Valley? Normandy? Someplace else? Would need to be accessible from London by plane or train.
• Nice could still be an option, since it gives us access to Nice, Cannes, Monaco, and the beach. But this might be more "beach" vibe than the "France" experience we want?
• Make middle a single destination for 4 or 5 days.

Current Thoughts:

• Sunday July 2 – London – 5 nights
• Friday July 7 – ??? – 4 nights
• Tuesday July 11 – Paris – 5 nights

I would 100% recommend Nice/French Riviera. It is costal and gives you a totally different vibe than Paris and a more well-rounded view of France. All of that area is so easily accessible by train and bus. We took the bus from Nice to Eze, which was an adventure in itself giving us an opportunity to take the Tram in Nice and gave me more confidence to take the bus. We also took the train to Monaco, so easy. I really wish we had done a beach day renting a lounger and having lunch, just for the experience and to have a down day between all the hustle of traveling for 23 days. We also like to travel Fast/Slow...meaning a few days Big city with lot's of gogogo and then 1-2 days small town for more strolling, cafe's, shopping, slow days.

Random thought for your London plans. Since you will be there on July 4, see if Benjamin Franklin's house is doing its Independence Day party. The house is great to visit anytime. Centrally located. Doesn't take too much time. And good, creative version of overview of him and his time there (18 years) before the USA revolution.

May want to consider Ville Franche-sur-Mer which is near Nice - very special location!

I believe most Americans who go to Bordeaux use it as a jumping-off point for the Dordogne. That's another area that needs more than 3 nights. It would work if you had just one stop between London and France and could spend 5 or 6 nights there, but not having a car will limit your access to the smallest towns. I had to hop around a lot (Agen, Bergerac, Brive-la-Gaillarde, Perigueux, Cahors) in order to have decent access to some small places that had bus sevice from only one of the larger towns.

I think the area around Nice would work well for you as the one stop between London and Paris--as long as you are OK with the length of the train trip back to Paris; I don't think flying from Nice to Paris would save you very much time.

The weather should be more moderate in Normandy, and there are lots of attractive destinations there, but you cannot count on sun on any given day.