Traveling in France countryside as a Female solo traveller

I, too, am a public-transportation-only traveler. Of the places you mentioned, I have only been to Colmar, Rennes and Dinan recently. I think I may have been to Riquewihr 20+ years ago; in any case, I believe it has some bus service from Colmar. Vannes is a large enough place that I'm sure it will not be an issue for you

When I'm checking on transportation to small towns without rail service, I do two things:

• Go to Rome2Rio.com and follow any links to get to the appropriate bus company's website and
• Google something like bus Colmar to Riquewihr.
  

Sometimes Google finds something Rome2Rio doesn't know about.

That said, I sometimes find that places I want to see just are not practical without a car. In some cases you can get there, and back, but it's only possible to get to that one small town that day, and there's only about one or two hours' worth of stuff to do in that town. What you'd hope to do is visit three such towns on the same day (choosing one for lunch), but that is so rarely possible that the one time I pulled it off, I felt as if I had hit the lottery.

A rideshare system called BlaBla Car is real popular there. There are regional buses running you just have to keep digging.
Some regional systems are tied to school hours or work hours. You will find the schedules leave you too little or long of a time at your destination. Traveling off season is harder also.
I've gone to Pont Du Gard on the bus when all the advice was you need a car.
I've made it to the Normandy beaches by public bus in January one time.
I went to Sarlat last January in the dead of winter and had to arrange a taxi to beautiful town La Roque Gageac.
And the taxi driver agreed to just come back 3 hours later. 50 euros.
It helps to search in French also as some smaller bus company sites are just in that language

I spent 6 days in the Alsace area and rented a car in Colmar and returned in Colmar. Avis has an office at the train station. This enabled me to visit many more villages than if I had to take a bus or train to and from my base in Obernai. Driving in the area is easy and parking was plentiful. Out of 80 days in Europe this was the only time I had a car, so I'm not against public transportation. However, in this area a car was the right choice for me.

We visited Bretagne in June 2017. We stayed near Quimper, and visited Colmar, Quimper, Concarnieu, and many other small seaside towns. A car was very helpful in this area. We used it extensively in that area.

We did get 1 ticket in the mail after returning, a photo-enforced speeding ticket. Also note that taking cars INTO towns can be problematic. We drove in Rennes. I was surprised when the street I was driving on became a 1-way in the wrong way, as I found when the bus was directly in front of me, the driver throwing up his hands in annoyance. No ticket, luckily.

We are generally inclined to public transit, in most parts of Europe. We used Flixbus a lot in Croatia, Germany, and Austria. Buses are pretty cheap in many places - Zagreb-Zadar - 13E.

Yes, having a car in countryside will be a good choice, however, I never drive in overseas, and also inside Colmar and other small towns, there is not any rental automatic car available.

Yes, sometimes using BlaBla car hiring could be convenient when you miss the bus and cannot find a way back to hotel. But the site only show up in French. I could not find a button to switch to English.

If you are ride-sharing it will be helpful if you spoke French - you won't have any idea of how much or any conversational English you car-owner may have.

We've stayed in Alsace with and w/o a car. Yes, you can see more with a car, but in the week we spent in Riquewihr w/o a car we definitely covered a lot of territory and visited a lot of villages. We walked to Kaysersberg several times, and Ribeauville. We also took buses, which required some planning because the schedules are geared to school and commuting schedules. And if you are planning on being in Colmar and/or Strasbourg, you definitely don't want a car.

Thank you so much for the information, it is very helpful!

There are several car rental companies in Strasbourg and you may be able to rent an automatic. It's only an hour's drive to Colmar. If you have a car, you'll be able to explore much more of Alsace and you won't have to base in the (fairly large) city of Colmar, with driving through traffic to get in and out. You could stay in one of the charming villages (I loved Eguisheim) and you would save a lot on lodging to help pay for the car!

Hi Milly we stayed in beautiful Barr in the Alsace. It is a short regional train trip from Stras. It is near Obernai.
Seems to be a bit unloved by travel experts. We loved the place.
Magnificent old town mostly 16 th century clasdic Alsace architecture. Great vinyards all around the town with nice little villages.
It is at the base of the Vosges and there are 3 impressive 13 th C. ruined castles in the forest easily accessed on foot via beautiful forest trails.
We also hiked up to Mt Sainte Odile.
Barr was a lively little town but was not at all crowded with tourists.
We stayed at a pleasant hotel called the Maison Rouge. It also had a pleasant streetside restaurant that we enjoyed.
Just another pleasant option in a delightful region.