Itinerary advice for France

Why would you go to Lyon to rent a car to drive to the Dordogne? It would make a lot more sense to take the TGV to Bordeaux, rent there and drop the car in Lyon. Typically, Sixt or Europcar will not charge for one way drop offs within France (Avis or Hertz always will). Even if they did, the time and gas you would save would more than make up for the drop off fee.

Annecy is an extremely pretty place, but the historic area is not exceptionally large and was monumentally crowded when I was there in 2017. Unless you are confident you have three days' worth of activities planned, I'd chop a night from that stop. I enjoyed a boat ride on the lake, but that only lasted an hour or two; in my experience, more than two hours on even the most beautiful lake is too long (but I don't fish or swim, so YMMV). I went to Talloires and was very underwhelmed; perhaps I missed something, but the miserable heat made me disinclined to wander around for more than an hour. This is key: Annecy is near mountains but is not in the mountains. It was brutally hot during my stay. Be prepared for that, and be sure your lodgings are air-conditioned.

The Resistance Museum in Lyon is very good. I haven't been to Grenoble so I cannot compare the Lyon and Grenoble museums.

Tocard has it exactly right about Lyon and Bordeaux.

Other than that, I admire your itinerary, with the minor suggestion that you would not regret spending another night in Lyon.

You probably know that there are many direct trains from Lyon to Charles deGaulle that bypass Paris. This is a feasible is slightly risky strategy if you have an afternoon flight and can leave a little extra time.

Bon voyage!

I will give a differing view of Annecy. We stayed for two nights at the Imperial Palace on the lake and absolutely loved our time there. The hotel is a short walk on the lake promenade to the old center of Annecy. People were leisurely walking and sitting on view benches, and there was a marked section for skaters & bikes. While the old center is crowded, we felt relaxed in our location, with a park with swimming, boats & bikes to rent adjacent to our hotel.

Lyon was another good city to visit. Three nights would be good at that location. The Gallo-Roman museum with the area behind to climb, and the funiculars would be fun for your children.

Have you been to Avignon, already? It would be a good stop while you’re in Nimes.

It looks to me like you have 5 days in the Dordogne and 12 destinations. I love visiting prehistory sites, but 4 In such a short time seems like overkill to me. OTOH, if you go to Rocamadour, the Gouffre de Padirac is close. Your kids might enjoy it more than another painted cave. It is enormous. First you descend in an elevator. Next there’s a guided walk through towering rock formations. Finally, you take a boat on an underground river to see more formations. Fabulous!
You do know, I assume, that the process, at present, for visiting most of the painted caves is to appear early, sit in numbered seats, and purchase tickets when they open. I don’t think advance reservations are available any longer.
I’ll also point out that the Dordogne and the Lot, if you base near Cahors, are very large areas. Some of your destinations are hard to access and would require a lot of driving. Conques is one such.

Sorry for my late responses. I was away over Christmas, but am back now and appreciate the comments that everyone has left.

@Tocard, thank you for this great suggestion, and I will definitely tweak the itinerary so that we pick up the car in Bordeaux and drop it off in Lyon. I've been playing around with the itinerary a lot and with the previous iteration, it did make sense to do a loop around Lyon with the car, but you are spot on about the current itinerary.

@acraven, I will add the resistance museum in Lyon to our itinerary. My husband, son and I all enjoy history, especially WWII history, and it would be interesting to see another perspective of the same issue.

@Adam, I am definitely leaning towards adding a night to Lyon, given the addition of a museum, and it being our last stop. The last thing we want is to have our memories of our last stop being of rushing around. I also do know about the TGV that connects Lyon with CDG- I should have made this clearer in my original post. Our intention is to travel to CDG from Lyon, though we would likely do this the day before our flight leaves.

@Jean, thanks for suggesting Avignon. On our previous trip we made it to Arles, but not Avignon- I will do a bit more research!

@Rosalyn, the Dordogne was where I was having the most trouble narrowing down what we want to see, mostly because we were having trouble deciding where to base ourselves. However, having looked up the Gouffre de Padirac, my husband, son, and I have decided that we must see it (daughter is too little to have any say in this decision)- thank you for bringing this to my attention! We will situate ourselves close by and check out this fantastic place! And yes, I am aware that most of the painted caves no longer take advance reservations. My family also tend to be late risers (not good for snagging limited tickets), but I can dream for now. :)

@acraven, The Other Bob, and Jean, I will be pondering the question of time in Annecy for a while yet. Thank you all for your perspective. How much time we spend there might come down to how much time I can take off work. This is a fairly long trip and I am not particularly pressed for time, but there are limits and I will need to figure out where those limits are. :)