Travel Itinerary three different Regions of France/Italy ,12 Days October 2021

Please consider Colmar/Strasbourg if you're in Basel. It's an hour + train trip, and the area is delightful.
Also - check on the French transportation strike schedules, just to be prepared.
You have many wonderful options.
Safe travels!

On Sat, Oct 2, EasyJet has a nonstop $29 flight departing Basel at 6:35p and arriving in Nice at 7:50p. Although expect to pay more to check your baggage than what you would pay for the fare. This would be the easiest of your three options. The reason I say this is because you can take a train (or plane) to Paris but you still have to make a connection to Normandy making it a long day. Of course, you can spend time in Paris on your back, but you cannot get to Normandy without going through Paris.
There are direct trains from Avignon to Paris and if you fly home from there, it'll require less transportation time. I also agree with what Pat said, but does your cruise stop in Strasbourg? I would make sure I saw Colmar on this trip.

If you choose #2, I would go to Varenna/Lake Como immediately, and then spend your days in Milan, which makes getting to the flight to Paris simpler.

The cruise probably stops in Strasbourg and Colmar, does it not?

I would finish in Paris and not spend the last night at the airport which it looks like you are doing. Finish in the city you will fly home from; just take a cab from your hotel in Paris to the airport for your flight (or you can take the train if you are packed light -- we usually just arrange a cab the night before and it has always gone smoothly)

Of your itineraries I personally would go with 3 and explore the coast and take the train from Nice to Paris and spend the last 6 nights 5 full days there. I am not a big fan of Avignon and would probably base in another coastal town but it is okay and there is a train along the coast so you could do day trips by train if you don't want to have a car. Nice is very walkable and you could day trip to villages from there as well. Don't miss the Matisse and Chagal Museums in Nice -- we took a bus to the Matisse and then walked from there back into the old town stopping to visit the Chagal along the way.

My comments on Option 3:

I thoroughly enjoyed Nice and the side-trips I took from that city while I spent two weeks there in 2017. However, 3 nights in Provence is quite short, especially since it will take more than half a day to get there from Basel. I think once you dig into a guidebook and see all the sightseeing options in that area, you will not be happy to have only two full days there. From Basel you can get to Avignon much faster than to Nice by train (though it seems that EasyJet has Basel-Nice flights). When you're ready to go to Paris, it will be faster to get there by train from Avignon than from Nice (again, you can fly Nice-Paris).

Therefore, for logistical reasons I'd very, very seriously consider spending all 6 nights in Provence (not necessarily all of them in Avignon). If you are nutso about art, I will retract that suggestion, because Nice has at least 6 art museums and there are a lot of others in the area (though with only 3 nights there and about 4 hours on the train to get from Avignon to Nice, you certainly wouldn't have time to see all of them).

Milan would not be my choice for a 3-night stay unless you've done a lot of traveling around Italy already. However, I can see that it's conveniently positioned if Lake Como is in the picture.

Hi Bruce,

If it was my trip, I would eliminate #2 because the first part of the trip has been on the water, so Lake Como - although a different look & vibe, would be too similar. And for Italy, I wouldn’t want to give so much time to Milan.

Your Option #1 gives you some excellent historic sites at both Normandy for WWII and the Loire Valley for French history. Those two areas feel different from each other, so that’s a nice itinerary. We flew from Seattle to Paris and immediately took the train to Caen, France near Bayeux. It was a long day, but I would suggest the same for you, if possible to give you your Paris time period at the end of your trip. No need to stay overnight at CDG; we always take the RER from the Luxembourg Garden neighborhood to the airport for our early flights.

Option #3 is nice, but I would redistribute some days and make one change. Those days in Nice will fly by - so much to do! I would give Nice four nights, and switch Avignon to Lyon. You could do Nice - 5 nights, Lyon - 2 nights and Paris - 5 nights (stay in Paris the last night). We have stayed several nights in Avignon. The Pont du Gard is very interesting, we also took a nice minivan tour of the Luberon villages, and Avignon was fine, but there’s so much more to do around Nice. Because the Italian/French border used to be west of Nice, you can enjoy the feel of Italy in the Italian section of Nice and also take the train over to Menton to explore the photogenic colorful Italian buildings & hilly lanes. The Villa Rothschild & gardens are exquisite, etc., etc. i was in Nice for five nights in 2019 and definitely want to go back to explore much more. I definitely recommend the Nice Food Tour! Excellent food and a few hours well spent!

We really enjoyed Lyon, and it’s a short train ride back to Paris. The Vieux Lyon neighborhood is wonderful to experience (we stayed there), and the Gallo-Roman museum is definitely worth seeing!

We have visited all the places you listed except Milan (however have been to the area),

1) Normandy is great, also Bayeux with the Tapestry is a must. We stayed in Blois in the Loire Valley and visited several Chateux, it was marvelous. Paris, of course is great, just wear a money belt, the pickpockets are terrible.

2) Avignon and Provence deserves more than three days. I would plan to visit it on a separate trip and spend at least a week, start in Lyon and moved down the Rhone to Avignon and Arles, then check out Monaco, Cannes and Nice.

Either choice would be good. If you expand on Normandy, you could visit Mt. Saint Michel on the border of Brittany and Normandy.