Question about my second trip to France

I've been to France 9 times.

No one that loves France and is not well off ever goes there in August, not unless it is free ticket or there is something special not known to the masses going on.
Go in April May or October November

Sign up for a sales alert with your preferred airlines. They email you the sales for a particular season; the sales generally last a week; but the the time on sale to travel i.e. off season January to March October to early December may be when you can not or do not want to go.

Get one of the guide books. Nice and Lyon essential I think but I see no reason to go to Cannes compared to Antibes or other places.

Don't go to France during peak travel season like you did the first time if you want to save money. Most guidebooks will say something similar.

I would include Jan, Feb, March in Jazz’s months. Jan-March will be the least expensive for hotels and airfare. Those are my favorite months. Bonus is there are very few tourists and it is a joy to walk right into places like the Louvre, Versailles, Orsay (i realize you’re thinking of southern France, this is an example) and have very few others there with you.

In April, i notice significantly more tourists, going through Oct. And again at Christmas time.

I buy plane tickets 6-12 mos in advance.
Train tickets the day they’re available online will be cheapest.
Hotels as soon as they allow (6 mos ahead? Each hotel varies).

Lyon is a good choice, but i don’t care for Nice or Cannes (too Beverly Hills for me). I’d recommend Burgundy, the Loire Valley, western Provence (small villages), the Dordogne, Brittany.

Watch YouTube videos of these areas and see what appeals. I’d highly recommend renting a car for all these areas.

I’m glad you enjoyed Paris and Normandy - two of my favorite places in France.

As to August being crowded - yes, Mid-June to mid-Sept are the most crowded times in France, and all of Europe. I try to stay away during those months. But i’ve lived in Paris for 6 yrs, and visit often for months at a time.

December can be very crowded, depends on where. I don't think March is at all, AFAIK kids are in school then. It sounds like you went to the most popular parts of France . . . and the most expensive.

I went to the Riviera in mid-March this year. Maybe I was lucky but the weather was warm and sunny for the 10 days I was there. Hotels had low season prices, nothing was crowded, except the Irish pubs in Nice on St Patrick's day. I flew into Marseille for 2 nights, then 5 in Nice with day trips by cheap train to towns along the coast, then rented a car for 3 days and stayed inland, visiting more quaint towns and enjoying the scenery. If you go in winter or early spring, avoid anywhere east of Marseille - while it's often warm and sunny, it's often bitterly cold and very windy.

Several years ago I spent two weeks in Burgundy and Alsace with a car in mid to late June and found very reasonable hotel rates, nothing was really crowded and in a few places there were very few visitors.

If you want to experience lavender in the South, then July is the time to go. It will also be very hot - but for our 1 experience it was a dry heat. And I was expecting lots of crowds, but not the case for us - maybe helped that we had a car and were visiting smaller villages - we'd been to the area twice before, so could avoid the larger cities, and we went for 8 nights, so we could take our time.

We've also been in the Nice/Provence area in early Oct and the weather was still glorious and warm. Nice was crowded whenever we went.

Depending on when and where you are going would determine when to book accoms. I usually like to book 2-4 mos out, but that goes for any trip.

Budgeting - well, I always look for accoms in the 50-75 euro range (which in my Canadian $ exchange is about $75-110) which is where we save a lot of our $$. I generally try to keep it at the lower end - I don't like going over $100. It helps to stay more towards a city center without a car - which does have it's trade offs - it might be more expensive and noisier, but you have the benefit of being able to walk more places. If you do stay more towards the edge of a city, make sure public transport os within a walkable distance to save time getting into the center - don't forget - time is also a commodity on your trip - it might be cheaper staying outside the city, but if you are spending 30 min to get to the city center, that's not good either.

Conversely - if you have a vehicle, you can stay in smaller, less touristy, cheaper places - we stayed in Salon en Provence and Manosque when we had a car...but then you have the trade off of the expense of a car. Most places a car is a hinderance - but in places like southern and northern France, it makes life easier to get to smaller towns and villages. We've rented 3 times in France - once up north and twice down south - driving wasn't much different than at home and fairly easy.

Food is always somewhere you can budget - if your accoms have a free breakfast - load up. Eat a light, cheap lunch - like a sandwich or split a pizza. If you rent an apartment or a place you can use the kitchen (our airbnb's in Salon and Manosque had kitchen facilities) you can hit a grocery store and make your own meals. I picked up a package of pasta, sauce and shredded cheese for about 5 euro (toss in a baguette and some chicken breast for another couple euro) and it fed the two of us three meals - eating out would generally run us 20-35 euro. So right there we saved say 70 euro. Pick up breakfast items as well - a box of cereal and loaf of bread, milk, juice and yogurt fed us breakfast for 5-6 days for about 10 euro.

After Nice, skip Cannes, and stay in Avignon or Arles to see and tour Provence, one of France’s most beautiful regions.

I’d recommend staying in St Rémy in western Provence, a lovely small town, if you have a car.

Paris hotels this July were significantly cheaper than what was being offered for early fall. I was grateful for hotel air conditioning on the hottest day ever recorded, and in a central hotel for under 100 euros.. A few restaurants were closed for vacation but there were plenty to choose from. No worries in winter, I suppose. But hotel rates are hard to predict in Paris because it more than just a tourist draw; fashion shows, for instance, can send prices up in the fall.
You have to make your own budget -- rules of thumb -- since only you can set your priorities.
The standard advice about saving money on food is to choose a fixed-price meal for lunch, generally cheaper than in the evening but with more limited menu choices. If your room has a microwave, pre-cooked meals are available at supermarkets and street markets. With a kettle in your room you can make your own coffee, which is very pricey at a coffee bar.

Small and specific money-saving tip that could still be helpful : if you decide to go to southeastern France, and to rent a car, you should compare prices not only between companies but also at different rental locations.
Western Provence and the Riviera are quite densely populated so there are many towns and places with car rental offices that are within easy reach of each other.
This is fairly easy to do using a consolidator like Autoeurope, you just search for rates in town A, then in town B, etc. and compare.
This August, I saved over 100 euros by renting a car in Aix TGV instead of Marseille Airport. It's a 5-euro bus or 25-euro cab between the two: excellent return on investment.