Small cities for quiet travelers, interesting but not exciting?

Lyon is not at all a small city but does have a very nice textile museum.

Rouen in Normandy (smaller but not small) has a good metalwork museum. It may be specifically wrought iron.

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris may have wrought-iron work.

I'm not aware of significant metal-work or textile sights in any of the following:

The smallish city of Troyes is very picturesque and seems to get few, if any, foreign tourists.

Nancy, the home of Art Nouveau, has many examples of architecture from that period as well as some Art Deco buildings. I don't believe many foreigners go there.

In western France I quite liked Limoges and Poitiers, also pretty much ignored by foreign tourists.

It's my impression many French cities have very nice cathedrals. I imagine you won't have much trouble finding good cathedrals to visit near destinations matching your other interests.

Another suggestion:
Mulhouse, a city in Alsace of about 100,000 inhabitants in the East of France, a great center of the industrial revolution of the last century (with cars, trains, textiles museums).
1 hour from Strasbourg by train.

Mulhouse:
https://www.tourisme-mulhouse.com/EN/home.html

Strasbourg
https://www.visitstrasbourg.fr/en/welcome-in-strasbourg/

Alsace region https://www.visit.alsace/en/

Smaller cities/ towns....I would suggest Soissons, Amiens, Fontainebleau, Arras. Arras is very interesting , ie the centre ville.

"He's into the early industrial revolution...." Look at some of the small towns in northern France.. the "Germinal" country., ie Lens, Doullens, Cambrai,

I have been to these places, except Soissons, more than once.

Small city is hard to define. Since you say 3-4 days, here are some regional capitals: Strasbourg, Dijon, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rennes, Rouen, Lille, Lyon. I skipped a couple that I wouldn’t recommend. All the above offer a lot but don’t have the edginess you find in Paris, London, New York, Rome, Chicago.

Note to travel from one to the other, you often have to pass through Paris, spending a lot of your precious vacation time on trains.

Finding a museum completely dedicated to the early Industrial Revolution in France will not be easy. Well I never have, maybe someone else. The best place remains the UK, where it all started in the 18th century with for instance the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen. Belgium was the first country where it started on the Continent around the turn of the 18th/19th century with the introduction of an English spinning machine you still can find in the Industriemuseum in Ghent. And Englishman John Cockerill who moved to Liège starting a huge industrial company there, with steelworks, locomotive factories and so on.

France came later and think the earliest stuff will be from the 19th century, but most from the second half of it. Famous and on the UNESCO world heritage list is La Chocolaterie Menier east of Paris, but alas not open to public as far as I know. The Eiffel Tower is later, Pont-Canal de Briare crossing the Loire river upstream from Orléans and Viaduc de Carabit are made by Eiffel too.

La Grand Forge de Buffon is a huge 18th century forgery near Montbard in Burgundy and nearby Abbeye de Fontenay houses one too originating from the 12th century. Both driven by water wheels so actually not regarded as part of the Industrial Revolution, nevertheless interesting.

Traditional industrial centres are in the northern part of France around Lille, especially textile and coal mining. Like the Mining History Centre of Lewarde or La Manufacture in Roubaix. Mulhouse in Alsace as already mentioned was a centre of textile industrie too, close to the railway station is the Musée de l’Impression sur Etoffes and the train museum there has a few 19th century locomotives and railway carriages on display.

In Lyon Musée des Tissues et des Arts Décoratifs has an early Jacguard loom in it’s collection. It’s closed for the moment, maybe and hopefully open again next year. Items about the Industrial Revolution are mostly part of larger collections or small museums spread over the country and so needing much time to travel. Think Musée des Arts et Metiérs in Paris can be of interest too.

For the Renaissance is ofcourse the Loire Valley with it’s famous castles of interest, but closer to Paris there is the Musée National de la Renaissance in Château d’Écouen worth to visit. In Bourges 250 km south of Paris is Palais Jacques Coeur a renaissance building too. Pleasant town btw and there is a gothic cathedral.

Hi,

Your study of French must have included a heavy dose of French literature. If so, not only do I suggest the towns in "Germinal" country (above) but also St Malo and Chateau-Thierry, the latter very doable from Paris Est, ca one hour., both of which are connected to French lit.

I'm a big fan of Vaison la Romine.... great roman ruins . Nimes isn't a small town but great if not the best ruins and you can find places to stay not right down town. You might also look at Uzes.

You say ...
We both ... have an interest in Roman Empire, the Renaissance, cathedrals. He's into the early industrial revolution, metal working, blacksmithing, telegraph system. I'm into fiber arts/ knitting/ textiles & plants/flowers/gardens.

To me, this suggests some time in the south ... Orange, Arles, Nimes and Avignon for the Roman Empire, Rennaissance and Cathedrals. The great schism in the Church and Papacy at Avignon were pre-Rennaisance, though the Palais des Papes is still an interesting site. Throughout the region there are many samller villages and so much Provencal farming and the Chateauneuf-de-Papes wine region.

Others have suggested where to go for the Rennaissance, early industrial revolution and metal work.

I second acraven and JoLui suggestions.
Strasbourg, Lyon, Colmar are bigger than large towns with many attractions.
Lyon has Roman ruins.
Also there are day trips to cute small towns in the Alcase region from Colmar.

Colmar and Strasbourg are both really lovely towns, but I think Colmar is a little smaller and feels more intimate, though it's not a tiny town either. Strasbourg is a capital of the European Union so sometimes gets crowded with government stuff.

Lyon is not a small city, but it's center is small and walkable and is great for a visit of a few days. I loved the Traboules although wish we had booked a private guide as during COVID many places closed the famous ones to the public and some guides have access.

Rouen also has a small core.

I personally like smaller places. We spent a happy week at the base of the walls of Semur en Auxois but we had a car to enjoy day tripping to abbeys, chateaux etc in the area.

If you have a car, you also can't beat small towns in the Dordogne.

Nice while a big city also has a manageable core. and is manageable without a car.

Ditto on Amiens...lovely place, culturally (the famous cathedral ) and historically, not just in the world wars.

I first got to Amiens in 1989, the last visit was in 2001. both in the simmer. Anyway, it has been years since I visited. Back then I didn't see tourists either in the centre ville., maybe some French but certainly no foreign visitors let alone anglophones. Both of my visits were done as day trips, ie from Paris (Gare du Nord to Amiens) and from Arras. Amiens wreaks with the carnage of the WW1 , the signs on the road re: the Somme River tell you that.