Traveling through nature in France

I found the Dordogne charming. It has canoeing, caves, and charming towns. It’s especially beautiful in the autumn.

The Alsace area is fantastic. There are beautiful villages and wineries throughout the wine country. I was based in Obernai, but there are plenty of villages with some great hotels. Also, the drive into the Vosges lower mountains near there is very nice with plenty of natural areas. Enjoy.

The Venise Verte in Poitou is very pretty and has plenty of water in the form of canals, but no mountains. Coulon is a good base here. La Rochelle is a good day trip.

For mountains, head to the Perpignan or the Alsace region or the Chamonix area. The Dordogne has plenty of rivers, not lakes but can be overrun with tourists in anything but low season. A few years ago, I was in a car park in Castlenaud and of the 20 or so cars, only 2 weren’t British!

Two national parks with villages in them: Morvan and Mercantour.

This doesn't meet all of your criteria, but I'll toss it into the hat anyway.

Long ago the entire coast of France had "chemin de douaniers" - or walking paths that the customs agents used to look for pirates and smugglers. Sadly the path I used to walk in the south of France is gone.

Doing a google search, I found this site that shows the GR34 "Sentiers des Douaniers" around the coast of Brittany. http://rando.tourismebretagne.com/decouvrir/les-itineraires-emblematiques/gr-r-34-le-sentier-des-douaniers

The Gorges du Verdon in Provence is gorgeous. It is often called the "grand canyon" of France.

Thank you so much to all of you who have weighed in on my questions ! All of it is helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to write.

I was really happy with my last trip in June. I flew into Toulouse, rented a car and worked my way from the Pyrenees in the south, through the Lot and Dordogne valleys, then to the beaches along the Atlantic and finally into Bordeaux before taking a train to Paris.

The Pyrenees were very green. To me they resembled Burgundy: medieval towns, rolling hills, farmland, and beautiful forests. The biggest difference I saw, the towns weren't as close together in the Languedoc region as Burgundy. I was expecting it to be dry like Provence.

I liked the Dordogne area but the villages are newer because so much was destroyed in the 100 years war. Plus it seems to attract more tourists than further south.

Judy, you might like to consider taking the single-track train that runs from Clermont-Ferrand to Nîmes, much of the way hugging the side of the Gorges d'Allier, with numerous tunnels and viaducts and spectacular scenery all the way. In 2017 I joined the line at Issoire, from another spectacular single line rail that links with Brive la Gaillarde, and spent a couple of nights each in Issoire, Langeac and Pont d'Alleyras, at hotels near the railway line, the last two of these being in good walking country. For more information about this line see, though I did the journey independently. You don't even have to book this train ahead, but it runs only once a day in each direction so you would need to check the timetables.

https://walking-holidays-france.com/6411/cevennes-railway-le-cevenol/

If you like birdwatching you can go to the Bay of the Somme with Parc du Marquenterre and north of Saint-Nazaire lies Parc de Brière. The latter is a marsh land like (more or less) the Everglades, you can explore with a bout tour, but no propellor. Both along the Atlantic coast.