One month all around France, but searching for homestay-like experience?

I've hosted and surfed using couchsurfing since 2008 - I think a lot of former hosts have switched to airbnb to make a little $$ (We still host, but haven't surfed since I think 2013). Bigger towns and cities will have more hosts, smaller places you'd be lucky to find one (we couchsurfed with a lovely couple in a tiny little place called Amblie in N France that has all of 270-ish people). You could look into couchsurfing get-togethers/hang outs...and there are some users who don't host but who might be happy to meet up for a coffee or some sightseeing in their town.

I'm not sure if you'd find hosts who would be willing to host more than 3 nights or so, tho you might be able to (3 nights is the upper plateau for me, but we live in a small town, so people only usually stay 1 night). If you do decide to sign up to cs'ing - make sure to fill your profile out as completely as you can, and when sending requests to potential hosts, make it personal - nothing makes me say 'no' to someone faster than them having a not filled out profile or sending a cut and paste request to stay. I've not had an issue hosting new people, as long as they communicated well and filled out their profile!

You could certainly look into airbnb'ing at a place with the hosts in the home - which is usually what we do. We've stayed with a few who were more than willing to sit and chat with us (in English since our French isn't that good). If you go that route, look for references left where people say the host interacted with them - you may find some where the host just lets you do your thing and has no interaction, so make sure to read the ref's.

Also - don't be discouraged if you ask a bunch or people (if you decide to try cs'ing) and they say no or don't reply. I think a lot of people only host more experienced surfers (of course, how do you get that experience?). Again - this is why it is important to fill out your profile.

If you live in a bigger city, even if you can't host, you could maybe get together with some fellow surfers, get some references that way.

You might also take walking tours.

Don't discount the idea of hostels. Although most of the other people staying there may not be French, you won't be spending all your time in the hostel, probably just the evenings, and management will likely be French speaking, if not the guests. While you are out and about each day you can interact in French with almost everyone you meet. Could your Paris host "parent" be of any help to you in finding accommodation other than in Paris?

You can also look for the term "chambres d'hotes," primarily in small towns and rural areas. There are various web sites like https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/index_en.html. However, rural locations are generally not practical without a car and young drivers pay more for car rental.

It has been a long time, but I traveled all over France staying in hostels for maybe 3 months in total. The nice thing about hostels was that they had kitchen facilities and I would buy dinner supplies (in small quantities) at markets or small shops during the day (opportunity for French conversation).

During the day, take the French option whenever you can — the French tour, do transactions in French, read French books (France still has bookstores).