South of France Itinerary - unrealistic?

I did the south of France years ago by flying into CDG and then hopping onto the TGV down to Avignon. I like to use my arrival mornings to sit on a train and get to my first overnight destination as most flights arrive on the continent early in the morning. I spent a night or two in in Avignon before renting the car to explore the surrounding area. St. Remy, Rousillion, Les Baux are all worth a day.

I enjoyed Cassis and the Calanques the most of that tour. At the end of the leg uou could head over to Marseille for easier transfers to the next area.

It could be difficult/cumbersome to go to into Geneva, Switzerland, as well. Since you don't plan on visiting Switzerland otherwise, I'm thinking you wouldn't want to go just to use the airport. As the previous person said, there are high speed trains to Nice also Montpelier. They take 3.5 to 4 hours.

Have you considered spending all your time in FR or must you include another country? I’m assuming that you’ve never been to Provence or the riviera and possibly Lyon. If yes, I would fly into Nice and out of Lyon.
From Nice you can take direct trains to:
Villefranche-sur-Mer (15-minutes)
Monaco-Monte-Carlo (30m)
Antibes (15m)
You’ll need to rent a car to visit:
Vence (45m)
St. Paul-de-Vence (45m)
Eze-le-Village (30m)
There’s a 3h direct train between Nice and Avignon and I would use Avignon as my home base in Provence. There are direct trains from Avignon to:
Arles (20m)
Nimes Pont du Gard (30m)
Orange (15m)
You’ll then need to rent a car to drive to:
Les Baux (45m)
Roussillon (2h)
Vaison-la-Romaine (2h)
From the Avignon TGV station you can take a direct train to Lyon Part Dieu (1h 15m). I would spend one day and night in Lyon and fly home from there.

You don't need a car to visit St-Paul-de-Vence, Vence or Eze-le-Village--at least in normal times. The Lignes d'Azur buses go to all those places from Nice. Public transportation along the Riviera and to a lot of the towns in the hills above the coast is quite good.

On the other hand, a car is very helpful in Provence. A car is essential to reach some of the very smallest places unless you want to take bus tours. But L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue has train service, and St-Remy has bus service from both Avignon and Arles. Those are not really small places.

All great options to look into. Thanks! Does including Annecy/Chambery seem unrealistic for this trip?

Doable? Depends on how much time you have.

We have two weeks

You can take a direct train from Lyon Part Dieu to Chambery-Challes-E (1h 30m) and store your bags and tour Chambery. From Chambery-Challes-E you can take a direct train to Annecy Gare Routière (1h 30m). From Annecy you can take a train to Paris Gare De Lyon and transfer to Paris Nord RER to Aeroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle RER.

Three years ago we flew to Paris, spent a night near the train station, trained to Avignon and rented a car there……stayed at Gordes for 4 nights…..lovely little village and drove around the smaller towns of Menerbes, Rousillon and Loumarin………moved to St. Remy and stayed there for 4 nights and enjoyed their restaurants and market and the Van Gogh museum nearby. We also spent a Sunday afternoon in I’sle Sur La Sourge…….such a treat………turned our car in and trained back to Paris for another week before flying home. We LOVED the south of France…….one of the best trips we have made!

Jane’s itinerary looks perfect!

Lots of good advice already, and 2 weeks for Nice region + Avignon region + part of the Alps sounds OK to me - including, perhaps, a night or two in Lyon if interested / needed to catch a flight (I'm not a fan of Lyon but many people love it!).
I'll just ask you... do you have any specific interest in Chambéry? There is very little of outstanding interest for a short-term visitor to the region? Grenoble is a bit more interesting, with better mountain views and an incredible museum (one of the best art museums in France outside Paris), but I would still prioritize Annecy over either place.
You could do, as an example:
- 4 nights around Nice
- 4 nights around Avignon (pick one base)
- 3-4 nights in Annecy (if 4 nights, do a day trip to Chamonix, or stay the night, even)
- 1-2 nights in Lyon

Balso, we were just thinking the mountains might be nice for a change of scenery, but not a must do. Since they were close to Annecy we thought what the heck.

Chambéry isn't any closer to the mountains than Annecy... Annecy itself has gorgeous mountain views!
Unless you were confusing Chambéry and Chamonix ? In which case, yes, do plan to spend a day there, it looks like you have time.

You are correct - confused the two. Chamonix