PACA Gite location advice

The Forum is a great source for recommendations, but it really helps to know what your interests are. Without knowing more, I would suggest you do a broad geographic search (on gites.com, AirBnB, booking, whatever one you like) and make a list of places that suit your family, have parking, etc. Then drill down to see which ones are in or at the edge of a city/town/village. Another approach is to identify the places in the area that you wish to visit on your day trips, find the centerpoint and work out from there to locate a suitable place to stay. Have a great trip!

What is PACA?

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur - we are not set on one specific place, but heavily leaning toward that region. And I should be more detailed in my questions -specifically would love to know some favorite walkable small towns in the area -thanks!

In the far west of your chosen area are Avignon and Arles. I stayed in Avignon (loved!) and day tripped to Arles, but a lot of folks on here prefer to do it the other way around. I can see that, as Avignon can be "done" in a day, and Arles is much closer to the Camargue, where the flamingos are (which I only saw from the train). Both cities are very walkable. Arles has (still? someone will chime in if these are gone since I was there) easels set up at the sites of some of Van Gogh's paintings. There is probably some type of guide to finding these. I just used google maps. Of course, these are cities, not really towns.
Another city I have visited and found surprisingly walkable and a good base for day trips was Nice. It's expensive, of course. The Chagall museum was amazing.
I don't think you can go wrong in this area (nor anywhere else in France, TBH), so I will revert to my original comment about finding a great place to stay and working from there.
Have a great trip!

@ Judy, It’s what the region is called since the region Provence with the Côte was created .Your in-laws live there. LOL

Thank you Jen and Elizabeth. I guess I need to keep up with things better! That area is so large I find it hard to think of it as a comprehensive whole. Of course, we had family (since passed) who went back many generations in Le Pegue (which no one in the US has heard of (pop. about 350). It makes me reminisce.....

For the Marseille contingent, weekends and summer days were spent at a cabanon in Aubagne...No indoor plumbing; an outhouse;
a water collecting tank on the hill above which fed the kitchen sink; showering on the "patio" with a watering can hung from the rafter with a rope to pull and tip it when you needed to get wet or rinse (only at night, with all the lights out for some privacy); walking on the dirt pathway into the village to get our daily bread.........Oh, what memories! The closest place to what the cabanon was like is seen in the PBS show "The Durrels in Corfu", except that house was easily 2-3 times bigger. Our cabanon had only 3 rooms. But it was idyllic sitting outside and listening to the cigalles while sipping a glass of rose or a pastis......Oh to be in Provence again!

Jen, enjoy your revisit! Wherever you land, make the m ost of it!

sounds like absolute Paradise

Sanary-sur-Mer is a nice spot. Great (and large) market. Close to lots of interesting places. Interesting history with links to refugees prior to and during WWII and where some of the important work on developing scuba diving occurred just after the war (Jaques Cousteau worked and lived there).

Nearby Toulon has two excellent museums: Musée National de la Marine and Mémorial du Débarquement et de la Libération de Provence, both of which cover the landings and liberation of southern France (operation Dragoon) a less well-known counterpart to the landings in Normandie that occurred two months earlier.

40 minutes drive to Cassis and the calanques. Marseille and Aix aren't far (about and hour's drive).

Lots of apartments available on Airbnb, but I don't know if that would be the case during your visit.

Jen,
Right next to Sanary-sur-Mer is Bandol, another lovely town to relax in. The harbor (pleasure and fishing boats...no cruise ships) has a nice "boardwalk" area to stroll along, with lots of cafes and restaurants and a carousel. The weekly market is there, on Tuesdays, with tempting produce and seafood stalls, among others with local crafts and clothes. There is a daily market near the mairie, and night markets in the summer. There is also a small sand beach and small park area there. There are lots of wineries to visit (Bandol is known for rose) within short drives. Both Bandol and Sanary are popular with French vacationers, but if you can go to either, you would be happy.
Have fun!