Paris and surrounding areas OR Nice and Provence areas?

Provence is a great choice. We’ve been based in Avignon a number of times for part of our trips, and in Saint Remy once. Both offer supreme base locations for visiting the area. Will you be renting a car, or using public transportation or a day tour or two? And June avoids the heat that occurs in the middle of summer.

Art museums are available in, and near, Nice. Food markets throughout towns in Provence are a wonderful experience, sometimes with surprise finds, and the Les Halles indoor market in Avignon is food heaven. Lots of Ancient Roman sights in the region, from when Provence was a provence of Rome. Hiking and walking options abound, with beautiful countryside, interspersed with dramatic gorges, hills, and rock pinnacles, some with villages perched on top.

Why not a bit of both?
Fly in to Paris- stay 3 nights- no need for any day trips
then train to Avignon- are you renting a car?
St-Remy makes a lovely base but you would want a car and a car makes touring the area much easier anyway.
Drop car after your stay of 4 nights then train to Nice- final 3 nights.
Fly home from Nice.

Exactly how many NIGHTS will you have?

I'd prefer to choose either the area around Paris or the south if I had only 9 or 10 days. And it would be helpful to know the number of nights, since people sometimes count their (probably jetlagged) arrival day and departure day.

It can be rather hot in the south in June. Could be in Paris as well, but I think it would less likely there (average high temp for June is 73F in Paris vs. 81F in Avignon--and those are for a period ending in 2010, which probably understates the situation). You can take a look at actual, day-by-day weather statistics going back about ten years on the website timeanddate.com. I'd check June 2019, June 2018, etc., going back at least three years; five would be better.

I think your idea to go to the south makes sense — given your expressed interests!

I would NOT divide the time between Paris and the south — you'll get to relax and see more by concentrating on one region. And Provence is lovely in June. Go for it!

Thank you everyone for the variety of responses and recommendations!

To answer a few more questions, we are open to renting a car, or not. Whatever makes sense for the area we are in is what we will do. I've read it is unnecessary to have a car in Nice, so maybe we will just get one for the Provence part of the trip. Also, the flights aren't booked yet but we will certainly arrive by noon and counting that day (but not counting the departure day) we should have 9 days to explore. I think we would go to Nice first (due to being jet lagged) then Provence following that.

If we stick with nice and Provence, what would be the best allocation of days between these two areas and "must see" attractions in each? Also, this may be a silly question, but is there anywhere that we need to be concerned about not knowing the language? I'll try to learn how to say a few catch phrases before we go, but it will be bare basics for sure.

Thanks again!

I don't think you'll have a significant language issue. Southern France has been hosting sun-worshipping foreign visitors for a very long time.

I am not a believer in must-sees; that depends on each traveler's interests. Rick has a book focused on southern France that has considerably more detail on that area than the "France" guide book. I recommend getting it and really digging in. The places you decide are your top priorities will affect how you split your time. There are more Roman sites in Provence, for example.

Having a car for part of your time in Provence is a very good idea; it will allow you to see places not covered by public transportation and make you more efficient.

Even just considering art museums, there is a wide choice. There are smaller, single-artist museums as well as some with broader collections. The Fondation Maeght in St-Paul-de-Vence is a very good modern-art museum, and I loved the naïve art museum and Asian art museum in Nice. But there are lots of other options; you might prefer Chagall, Matisse, Leger, Picasso or Bonnard or the pre-modern period.

There are good gardens in Menton and at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild on Cap Ferrat; the villa itself is interesting. The Greek-style Villa Kerylos, walkable from Villa Ephrussi if you're not in a hurry, is also interesting but isn't known for gardens.

I think most visitors enjoying going to at least one of the markets. A good, current guide book will tell you where and when they take place. There are many. The Sunday market in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is one a lot of folks make a point of seeing. However, it is crowded, and I'm sure there are traffic and parking challenges if you don't arrive by train. I'm sure Rick mentions markets in the towns he covers. If you want to see more than one, it's worth checking your local library for a recent edition of the DK Eyewitness Guide for southern France (I don't remember how it is titled). Those things are too heavy to carry on a trip (for me), but they use a market-basket symbol that makes it easy to see which towns have a market, and they give the day(s) of the week. You can verify that your information is current by Googling.

The Rick Steves guidebook really provides key information, including a suggested driving route for visiting villages in Provence, and a list of what towns have markets on what days of the week. A rental car allows you to go where you decide, and on what schedule.

For Nice, plan at least 3 days. Walk the grand shoreline Promenade des Angles, visit the revitalized neighborhood down by the old port, stop in the Florian luxury candy store. Museums acraven describes are wonderful; the Marc Chagall museum Is a must, and even view the film in its theater. And the Foundation Maeght is fantastic, a little trip out of Nice by bus.

The bus and expanding tram system in Nice work great for getting around. And hop the train to go to the town of Antibes, down the coast to the east, with a small but excellent Picasso museum, including special ceramics. Monaco is just beyond, with a superb aquarium originally set up by Jacques Cousteau.

So if you arrive in Nice, are you returning there to fly home, or departing from a different airport, “open jaw,” to avoid backtracking? Marseille might work, and that city’s worth at least a day in itself.