Itinerary Help - Paris, Chamonix, Nice..... What to add?

Chamonix is a lovely town, but, unless you are using it as a base for day trips, four nights might be a bit much. Depending on arrival and departure time, two nights (three at the most) should be sufficient for the town itself. Just one person's opinion.

I really liked Lyon. It's a city of considerable size with quite a variety of sights. I think two nights would be really short. However, I don't have children, so I'm pretty clueless about what would keep them entertained.

Aside from at least six art museums (which I imagine will not be on your sightseeing list), Nice probably doesn't have as many sights as Lyon; it's 1/3 smaller in terms of population. But it's the transportation hub for the Riviera, with train service heading both east and west along the coast, as well as buses going inland. There's lots to see in the area of interest to adults. I trust you're looking at options from the standpoint of interest to your specific children.

I pay a lot of attention to weather statistics when I plan my trips. The average March low temperature in Chamonix is 26.6 F; the average high is 48.0 F. Nice averages 20 degrees higher at night and almost 12 degrees higher in the daytime. Paris and Lyon fall in the middle, a bit closer to Nice than to Chamonix. Chamonix also gets the most precipitation in March, on average, by a considerable margin.

Agree with Aacraven about Chamonix. We had considered it, until we realized that it will still be quite cold in March

Chamonix in March is more ski time than anything else. But you'll likely be snow free at ground level. You can take day trips but four days is a lot unless you are skiing (I used to live in Lausanne, now have a place in Nice). Yvoire and Evian are closeby, and Geneve itself. Annecy is also not too far away, south of Geneve.

If you haven't already booked flights, you could fly into Nice and then work your way north --- train to Lyon then drive to Chamonix. Return car (possibly in Geneve -- return car on French side and take the train to Geneve central to catch the TGV) and train to Paris .

Any mountain-related adventure in March in Chamonix will require winter gear incl. appropriate boots. There will be snow on the ground anywhere above the town itself.
Also, the drive from Nice to Chamonix is really very long. It would be easier to fly from Nice to Geneva, and use a transfer company from the airport (there are many in winter season).
Likewise, the drive to Nice from Lyon is quite long and the train would be more comfortable.

We are from Minnesota so we're prepared with good snow gear and boots and were planning an extra checked bag for those items for Chamonix. A lot of the activities we're looking at in Chamonix are what I think the kids will enjoy most, dog sledding, snowshoeing, sledding track, and skiing.

I was wanting to make our way to Nice because the temps will be higher, but now I'm starting to wonder if it's just too much travel and we should instead spend time in Paris, Lyon, Chamonix, and Geneva. Or are there any other recommendations between Paris and Chamonix? We do already have flights purchased in and out of Paris.

Our children have traveled with us and my parents to Spain and Italy. The parts they enjoy most are exploring the old city streets, finding places with tasty treats, trying new foods (nothing fancy), discovering a playground, and my 9 year old loves a shopping day. We love an area with a pedestrian walkway.

Thank you for all the input. It is helpful to talk through with other people as this stage of the planning can be overwhelming

We did a similar trip in December 2021 with our adult "kids." We did Paris - Colmar - Lyon - Chamonix. Flew into Paris and out of Geneva. Trained from Paris to Colmar, rented a car in Colmar that we kept until we arrived in Chamonix. Parking in Lyon was pricey but readily available and way easier than figuring out how to get to Chamonix otherwise. You might also consider Annecy which the kids may like better than Lyon. I'd delete Nice.

If you want to end in Paris, do the reverse, fly into Geneva, spend the first part in Chamonix (earlier = better likelihood of the weather you need for your outdoor activities) and go from there.

We had our first visit to Lyon as a one night stop between Arles and Paris. We were charmed and instantly regretted having such a short stay. We returned several years later and spent 3 nights and haven’t seen everything yet.

Lyon has a wonderful diversity of museums and activities for adults and kids - fine art, textiles, WWII history, natural history, puppets, film and motion picture history. Parks, river walks, old cobblestone streets and river cruises for exploring. And food.

I’m specifically thinking that the kids might enjoy the puppet museum, le Petit Musée de Guignol, and/or the Musée Cinema et miniature (props, costumes and miniature sets from popular movies), both in the old town, an especially fun place to explore. Also, the very unique, natural science focused Musée des Confluences is one of our all-time favorite museums.