Help! Logistic Nightmare. Paris to the South of France

Antibes is nice. Skip the one-nighters and add the time to Paris or Antibes. Getting to Antibes from Paris is quick and easy via TGV.

Epernay and Reims are 30 minutes apart on TER trains about once per hour, so stay in one or the other and visit the other by train. Then book train from there to Avignon say. Tickets for that train you can use www.loco2.com to purchase.

If by Provenance you mean Provence, I agree with taking the train from Reims to Avignon if you spend two nights in the Champagne region. Note that you will probably have to change stations in Paris because trains from Reims come into Gare de l'Est and trains to Avignon leave from Gare de Lyon. I would do Epernay and Reims or more likely only Reim as a day trip from Paris, but that's me. Are you planning on doing tastings in Reims and Epernay? I have done the Taittinger tour with a 13-year-old and 5-year-old and it was fine but I do not know that I would do multiple tours/tastings with children because they may become quite bored after one.

Are you planning to rent a car in the south of France or even only for the two days that you spend in western Provence before heading east to Saint Tropez? If so, pick it up at the Avignon TGV. If you are not planning to rent a car, I suggest staying in Arles for the two nights that you are in that area. Antibes is almost 2 hours by car from Saint Tropez. It's quite nice. I'd stay there over Saint Tropez any day of the week but I do not think of Antibes as being in the Saint Tropez area. If you have not done so already, you may want to study a map of the Riviera/eastern Provence to get a sense of how close to any of the big-name towns you want to be. As an aside, maybe because it has no train station, Saint Tropez is a traffic nightmare in August. The only roads into Saint-Tropez are two-lane roads that stretch for about 45 km before linking to an autoroute. Believe me, in August, it will be the longest 45 km of your life.

preserve,

It's very easy to get to most places in France (and elsewhere) in Europe using the excellent rail network. The high speed TGV travel at up to 300 km/h so that's a very quick and efficient way to travel. You'll have to narrow down which stations you'll be using as many cities have more than one. Paris has about six main stations.

You can check schedules etc. using the Bahn.de (German Rail) website but note that they don't sell tickets for trains originating in France. If you wish to buy advance tickets, buy either from SNCF.com or Trainline.com.

You may want to have a look at the RS France guidebook as there's LOTS of good information there that will answer many of your questions.

St.-Tropez has no rail service, so it would definitely not be my choice of a place to stay if I planned day-trips.

Southern France may be quite hot during your proposed travel period. Pay particular attention to comments in hotel reviews about the quality of the air conditioning.

I was in France during July 2017, and it seemed as if half the local population was on the same trains I was. There wasn't enough space on the luggage racks for all the bags, so I twice had to baby-sit my bag in the entry way of the car; so much for the reserved seat I had paid for. I recommend packing light so you can easily heft your bags onto the rack over your seats.

I think you're going to find that one night anywhere is close to worthless by the time you get a family of four to the new city and settled into a hotel. Be sure you've done some solid guide-book research before committing to just 2 nights in Provence. It's a very interesting area, and 1.5 days on the ground there is painfully short. Public transportation isn't quite as frequent there as it is right along the Riviera coast. A lot of smaller places have just very limited bus service, which makes it difficult to see more than one little town per day. The larger places like Arles and Avignon are not a problem, transportation-wise, but your plan for such a quick visit suggests to me that you're thinking of cute little towns instead.

Absolutely dump the one-nighters. Pick one or two places you'd really like to see and enjoy before heading to St Tropez. Ask yourself why you're going to each of these place, then revise your itinerary. Too many stops in a short amont of time lead to confusion, exhaustion, and general crankiness. :-)

Yep, one nights stress you out and take 1/2 or more of a day to accomplish.

If you are relying on public transit and want to see more, then do not stay in St Tropez. Antibes would be better, or Nice for a first timer. If beach is the sole priority, then Juan les Pins is another alternative (the best beach is much closer to the rail station). St. Tropez and the surrounding area are best served by car, but hitting the rest of the Cote d'Azur can be challenging as noted due to the peak traffic.