Small town/city suggestions...

What time of year, for how long, and are there any areas you're especially interested in or not interested in? And who is "we"?

France has many lovely smaller cities. Are you looking to spend time communing with nature, tracking down historic sights (what period?), visiting art museums, or something else?

Hey moserten
Using public transportation or will you have a car?
Aloha

I've been to a lot of charming towns in France. I usually google key words like "cute", "charming", etc. Not really knowing what region you are thinking of, you could look at Amboise in Loire, Dinard in Brittany, Locronan in Brittany, Eguisheim in Alsace, Honfleur in Normandy. It also would depend on whether you would have a car or would be using a public transportation.

To the above list I'd add Annecy, Nyons, and Bourges. But I could probably think of dozens more if I took the time.

I haven't been to Dingle, Galway seemed like a small town to me. I googled them, Galway's population is about 80,000, Dingle's is about 2,000. But then I thought about Granada (pop. 237,000), so a good-sized city and Madrid is major city. So I can't even guess what you're looking for. A village? there are tons of them in France, most are charming. A town - lots of those too.

How long do you plan to stay? Will you have a car? What do you want to do during that time?

We spent a week in St-Remy-en-Provence in May (Saturday-to-Saturday apartment rental) and used it as a base for driving to other towns. Loved it! Great market on Wednesday. Pool for hot days. Walk to restaurants, food market, wander around cute town.