quaint villages in France

Colmer is a pretty town but it is touristy. We were there on the RS Eastern France tour during September and it was crowded.

September is peak travel season and if a town is 'quaint' it will be touristy. Note that such towns tend to shut down on Mondays so plan visits with that in mind. There are whole books on the 'beautiful villages' of France. There are lovely towns and villages in all regions.

I like Colmar a lot. It is beautiful, and the Unterlinden Museum is good. But Colmar is extremely touristy (most notably during day-tripping hours) and far from a village. It has a population of about 70,000.

I would call Colmar a large town or city, not a village. Definately check out Les Plue Belle Villages, but they are very popular so wont be quiet!

It would help to narrow things down to one region. Regions with a high concentration of "quaint villages" include Alsace, southern Auvergne and northern Languedoc (probably your best bet for less touristy villages), Périgord and Quercy (east of Bordeaux, north of Toulouse), inland Provence... You'll have to take your pick!

You'll have to define what "quaint" means to you. Frequently our clients will explain "how quaint" when we drive through any random village or hamlet with no particular charm or outstanding feature. Often it's somewhere that I only notice as a place with a reduced speed limit.

Colmar isn't a village. It's a large town. Even Loches (population 7000) is a largeish town. Our town has a population of 1000 and the inhabitants would correct you outright if you called it a village.

Montrésor is a village.

Eguisheim is one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France so your choice of it is a good one. Population is about 1,500.

The wine villages south of Strasbourg are charming,; we stayed in Riquewehr for several days as well as Strasbourg, a beautiful city.We disliked Colmar and wished we hadn’t wasted a day to go there.It is a large city.
We loved the villages in the Pays Basque, north of Spain in the foothills of the Pyrenees: Ascain, Ainhoa, Epellette, Saré and more, very charming.

France isn’t an amusement park with premier quaint stops and best is in the eye of the beholder.

You can find attractive/quaint villages and towns. I found one in Calvados and have seen any number of small towns scattered around Normandie. Pick a region of France and stay off the main highways….you’ll see something pleasant along the way. Wait for more input here and you’ll have much of France recommended to you.

Thank you for your suggestions. We won't have a car, so they would have to have train or bus connections.

That opens a different can of worms. Trains go to larger cities and local trains go to towns. Buses from towns to villages run on schedules that suit local needs, such as market day or to and from school drop off and pick up. One poster on here, acraven, manages to travel all over Europe with public transportation and might be able to give you more tips. But I think, you may have to be looking for the older sections of larger towns if you are relying on trains and buses. Or you could determine what taxi services are available in the village to get you to towns with transportation.

You can also base in larger towns with interesting old towns and use buses for day trips to villages in the region. We did this once in Nantes. But it is much better to have a car if you want to explore small towns. Here was an example when we spent a week in Cadouin in the Dordogne. Cadouin itself is very small -- one restaurant, one bar, one bakery and the weekly market consists of 4 tables; they have an historic abbey on the pilgrimage. . We also visited a smaller town in the region for night market
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/perfect-place-for-murder-commarque-chateau/
And we visited a couple of tiny towns including this one to seek out an interesting small countryside church. Note that in the small town it appears to be totally dead -- there was not even a place to get a cup of coffee. Lots of small villages without well developed tourism have no real economy. They are places where folks have a summer home or work elsewhere. Finding this little church was fun though and we only saw one other tourist the whole time.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/montferrand-du-perigord-and-its-12th-century-stone-church-st-christophe/

Hi Mlw,
As has been pointed out quaint is in the eye of the beholder. Eguisheim is nice if maybe a bit I dunno 'limited'? Bourdain died in nearby Kaysersberg. Colmar is a fun base and has a good market for self-caterers. Nonetheless, below are some villages/towns that might qualify (in no particular order):
Olargues
Saorges
Figeac
Belcastel
St. Agnes
Capdenac-en-haut
Meursault
Conques
Villefranche de Rourgue
Semur en Auxois

*Just a month ago on Ischia, we met Veronique, a young historian-cum-traveler from Belgium who works in rural Holland. I asked for her opinions on some of the best small towns that she'd experienced in France and she answered that honestly, there were too many to list.
I am done. The end.

Oh, "villages" and "bus connections" do not go hand-in-hand.
It still works out OK in Alsace, in the Pays Basque as well with careful planning as well, but it gets difficult in many other regions and impossible in some (such as Auvergne, Lozère & Aveyron).