One month in southern France

Are you looking at Provence or the Côte d'Azur?

… or even west of those, in the Southwest of France? We’ve considered going back in the winter to Cauterets, a village where we spent a week last July.

kmahawk,
When you think of being in the south of France, how do you picture yourself? What kinds of activities do you like? Do you have an image of yourself spending the day a certain way? The different areas in the south of France will have different ambiences. CJean and Cyn are correct in asking which part you are interested in. Remember, France is about as large as California, with a much longer southern border, so perhaps you could give us some ideas of your wants/needs to narrow down suggestions.
Also, have you read any travel books or even fiction books that have given you a picture of what you expect? Maybe then we can make some recommendations.

Thank you for replies, We will be in Sevilla for 2 weeks and were thinking more of the Languedoc region. We have been to Toulouse and Carcasonne . We would like to spend a month immersing in the town and " just living " i am a runner and will be training for a marathon so will need roads. We are active hikers , exploring markets and cooking , But definitely would like cafes, markets to be open . We are from Colorado and do not mind temperatures in the 50deg F . We spent a month in Orvieto last November and having train access was important .
Thank you for thoughts

I had planned to spend a month in southern France this summer (plans changed) and I had narrowed it down to Montpellier. I have never been there, but it seemed well situated to take excursions into either Spain or Italy. I'm still keeping this one on the burner, because I might try to pull this off next summer...we'll see!

As a former runner myself, you may want to check out the southwest as your base (though there are plenty of running opporunities throughout France.) I'd suggest looking at someplace like Pau or Lourdes, which are both close to the mountains with lots of hiking, running trails. Beautiful setting though it will be cold and gray in February. You would also have easy train access to Basque Country, Spain, Bordeaux, etc. from those two towns.

If you head further north of Pau, towards La Réole or Sauveterre de Guyenne you can hop on to the Piste Cyclable Roger Lapébie, which goes all the way in to Bordeaux centre. These towns will be quieter during February with mixed train access (La Réole has great train access, Sauveterre...not so much.)

Hope this helps!

I live in southern France, west of the Rhone in Occitanie, and keep telling my husband that next January and February I want to leave for southern Spain or Morocco. In fact, some people here do leave for those months. It's not like southern California or Florida, if that's what you have in mind. So I'd recommend the coast/ Riviera from Cannes to the Italian border, where the sun is most likely to shine. Vence is a good place for what you are looking for.
The further west you go the rainier and cold, strong winds blow south out of the Alps into Provence, and the Massive Central into Carcassonne/Toulouse area. There's a reprieve from the winds between those two in the Montpellier/Sète area, though there are some windier days. If you can tolerate the winds, Uzès or Saint Remy because those towns close down only partially from November to April.
If I had only February, it would be on the Côte d'Azur with Nice's Carnaval and Menton's Lemon Festival in February. Only beach clubs close down on the Riviera in winter and the sun shines.