Help with France?

Alsace is the only place you'll find Gewurztraminer and Riesling in France. In terms of cities the best are Strasbourg or Colmar, both are picturesque in parts but Strasbourg is a bigger city.

In general you need a car in the Loire valley to see the most important chateaux without taking up a lot of time.

In places like the Loire, Burgundy, Dordogne (our personal favorite), Provence, etc your experience is much enhanced with a car as you can visit places not easily visited by public transport and those are also less likely to be over crowded.
We mourn the loss of those days -- we did a lot of driving in Europe over the years and can no longer do it.

What we do now is small tours that focus on transport in a region. e.g. This spring we did a day trip from Geneva to the foot of the lake in Geneva to Chaplin's world, Castle Chillon, Vezey, Montreux and a vineyard for wine and snacks. The 'tour' consisted of a comfortable bus that took us to those places and then told us what time to be back at the bus. Perfect. A year ago we did a day trip from Monpellier that took us to villages, a beautiful lake where we had lunch, an interesting geological area for hiking and an abbey. All things we could not manage on our own without a car.

but since you drive, I'd pick an area and base in a small town with a few amenities in that area and then use the car to explore things in the region. e.g. from Semur en Auxois in Burgundy we visited, chateaux, villages, an abbey and did a number of short hikes in the Jura. And had the joy of basing in this exceptionally beautiful village.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/burgundy/

Alsace offers beautiful villages, a castle, wonderful wines and some excellent food. If you want to rent a car, great. But, you can easily visit the area without a car. Basing in Colmar, you can bus, train or taxi to some of the wine villages and Strasbourg. There's also the wonderful Kutzig bus that runs a circuit throughout the day to the villages. There are also companies offering day tours with wine tastings. I enjoyed a wonderful small group tour with L'Alsaciette in 2022. We enjoyed wine tastings paired with cheeses, visited several villages, had a lovely lunch and even visited Haut Koenigsbourg and a WWII sight honoring American soldiers.

Joby,
14 days on the ground in France will give you time for a varied visit. I might allocate my time this way, based on my favorites, and not in the order of travel, but counting full days...just suggestions to arrange later:
5 days Dordogne region (with car) (a favorite of mine)
3 days Bretagne (with car) (another favorite of mine)
3 days Loire Valley (with car) (kind of a must see for good reason)
3 days Alsace (without car) (the Germanic flavor makes this a somewhat different place to visit)

This leaves out tons of regions (Normandy, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Provence, the Riviera, the Alps, Lyon.....etc.) and Paris. I think Bretagne would be the least expensive. You can find good prices in the Dordogne in smaller areas and there is no need to stay in Sarlat, as sights you will probably visit are easily accessible by car and are fairly short drives apart. In Alsace stay in Colmar or Strasbourg and take the local bus between towns or day trip tours. Colmar and central Strasbourg are walkable. The Loire Valley can be done without a car, using public transportation and day tours. Bretagne is different from other parts of France because it is very definitely Celtic (and proudly so). Thus the ambience is different. To some, it is an acquired taste because it seems less "French".
Alsace is very popular. Colmar and Strasbourg are only about 30 minutes apart by train.

No doubt others will have fascinating suggestions, all of which will be tempting. I have just chosen what I consider to be a varied sample from among my favorites. It was hard to omit Provence, but with 14 days....well, needs must.

France is rich in options for you. Best of luck and have lots of fun planning this trip!

You may consider something similar to what my daughter and I did back in 2016 when we traveled to France after her study abroad semester in the UK.
We flew to Geneva and went straight to Chamonix for 3 nights. Our trip was in late May and the weather was pleasant, a bit warm in Provence, but overall great weather.

This was our itinerary:
Chamonix >> Annecy >> L’Isle sur-la -Sorgue >> Avignon (day trip to Saint Remy & Les Baux) >> Paris >> Loire Valley with home base in Amboise >> Paris >> home

There are so many beautiful places in France, you can’t go wrong wherever you choose to go!

Please let us know your final itinerary and have a wonderful trip!

Paris is both a budget buster and a hub for the cheaper flights. Does your US airport have Icelandair? If so you can fly into Paris and leave for the Loire or Normandy right away and fly home from Geneva at no extra cost vs Paris. You could do something like this.

Fly into Paris and train directly to Tours, rent car in Tours and spend 4 nights in Loire valley.

With your remaining 10 nights you could do

3 nights Burgundy
3 nights Alsace
2 nights Arbois (Jura)
2 nights Annecy

Drive to the French side of the Geneva airport and fly home.

Thanks for all of the replies!

We will most probably rent a car.

We probably won't be taking any day tours, we'd prefer to tour and drive ourselves I think.

Matt, An Iceland air hub isn't near us.

We were possibly thinking about an open jaw flight or round trip to/from Paris. I was looking into different credit cards as to perks. When we went to Alaska we got an Alaska Air credit card. We got a BOGO airfare plus used the points for our Alaska internal flights. it saved us hundreds of dollars!!! I'm sure we won't find anything like that, but maybe sign up bonus points would buy 1 airfare and free checked bags would be a plus :)

It was brought to my attention something that I hadn't thought of--holidays. May has 4 "national" holidays and 2 "observed" holidays. Whereas June has only 2 "observed" holidays. I wonder if the prices of the trip would change much if we went the first 2 weeks of June?? Thoughts?

May is usually less expensive than June, especially for lodging. Strasbourg is the site of the EU Parlament and is almost as expensive as Paris. Parking can easily run 50 euro/day. Places like Colmar in the Alsace, and other tourist towns are likewise not going to be the most economical places to stay. That being said there are places in smaller, less well known, locations that can be had, especially if you are not limited to the main rail and road networks.

This is a link to a European Vacation home rental site that may help you: https://www.fewo-direkt.de/

What I would do is pick two places you want to see and spend a week in each. Maybe three, but, as you note, there are a lot of holidays within the timeframe you are looking at. Note the observed holidays change within the various regions. Be advised there are good odds you will also encounter a strike, as that's a popular time for the unions to hold them (because they can combine a strike with a holiday and have a longer time off.)

Pick a couple things you really want to see, and then focus on exploring those regions. It's a little slower, a bit more in depth, but a very good way to learn about the area.

I agree with KGC to pick two regions (you've already identified Alsace and Loire, so go with those).
My advice is always to get over the Atlantic in whatever way is "best" for you. Sounds like budget is the highest priority. You can use a site like skyscanner.com to find flights by searching from your preferred departure airport to "anywhere" and pick the first European country (usually the UK). "Internal" flights are generally quite inexpensive, and of course, there are the trains. For example, I have flown SEA-FRA twice, first for a trip to Ireland and second for a trip to London. I was able to get comfortable seats for an affordable price, and I just built the trip around that flight.
A good way to save money on flights is to travel carryon-only, which you can absolutely do (loads of relevant advice on this site and in RS books).
Since you plan to rent a car, there is no need to stay in popular tourist cities. You can stay anywhere. Use the link provided in the KGC's comment, as well as the usual AirBnB, Booking.com, etc., with the map set quite broadly to find affordable accommodation that suits your needs.
I wouldn't necessarily drive between Alsace and Loire, but I'm not sure there is another practical way to get there.

KGC, We don't have to stay in Strasburg, but we would like to visit the city. We can stay anywhere that is convenient and within our budget as we'll have a car I think.

I think only 2 locations wouldn't satisfy us. We like to see as much as possible without doing fly-throughs. I was hoping to get an itinerary with 3-4 places?

Would late April be any better for budget vs trip experience? It looks like the holidays are: April 5 (Easter), May 1, 8, 14, 25. We're trying to find the best fit for budget, weather and experience for our trip.

Thanks for the replies")

The one thing I've learned about France so far is that you can't go wrong. My least favourite place has been Paris and have absolutely loved everywhere else. A few weeks ago we spent a couple of days in Colmar and now it's on the list for a longer stay. Last Fall we spent a week in the Dordogne and learned that 1 week is a good start. You could easily make your entire trip through Bordeaux, the wine region and the Dordogne. Here's my Trip Report if you're interested. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-part-2-hills-and-castles-dordogne

Thanks, Allan, your trip report was a fun read!

Hi,
I'm still trying to come up with a workable itinerary for our trip :)
Would something like this itinerary be a working start?

-2 nights Paris
-4 nights Tours (taking train from Paris to Tours) picking up rental car in Tours
-2 nights Nevers/Sancerre (Burgundy)
-1 night Beaune (to break up drive)
-3 nights Alsace area
-2 nights Epernay (drop rental car in Reims and train to CDG)

Joby,
Just a note. Have you calculated your travel time from place to place with the car? Viamichelin.com has times listed, but add time to theirs because they don't account for bathroom, gas or meal stops, and possible traffic problems. That will tell you how much time you will have in a place on the day you arrive (drive) there.
Bonne chance!

Thanks, Judy :) Yes, I did use the Michelin site and Google both. Michelin had it just about 45 minutes overall longer.

This is what times I came up with. Are they close?

-2 nights Paris
-4 nights Tours (taking train from Paris to Tours) picking up rental car in Tours (2.5 hours Tours--Nevers)
-2 nights Nevers/Sancerre (Burgundy) (3 hours Nevers--Beaune)
-1 night Beaune (to break up drive) (3 hours Beaune--Alsace)
-3 nights Alsace area (5 hours Alsace--Epernay)
-2 nights Epernay (drop rental car in Reims and train to CDG) (45 minutes Epernay--Reims)

I see your frequent reference to Alsace in calculating driving times. I know you both looked at Strasbourg but also looked away from Strasbourg.

For calculating times, you might pick a point for times. Alsace is a long skinny Départment and times from Colmar, the Wine Route and Mulhouse will be dramatically different than from a suburb of Strasbourg - or Strasbourg City even more - to Reims. Also how far you are from the Autoroute and which side of the time sink of driving around Strasbourg you will be on will make big differences.

Nigel, Point well taken :)

Right now, I'm trying to get a semi-close itinerary to see what areas are feasible to visit I think. After that my thought was to pinpoint the exact town in each region and then go from there. Is that a questionable way to go about getting our itinerary? I'm terrible at getting an initial itinerary, it just overwhelms me. I want to see every area and there's never enough time to see all that I'd love to see---anywhere!