Where shall we establish our home base during a month in France?

What areas do you want to visit?
France is a big country. You cannot cover it all with day trips from one location. You need to pick an area of France, and choose a location suitable for that area.
Possible areas to choose:

• Normandy
• Brittany
• Loire Valley
• Alsace
• Champagne
• Île-de-France (the area centred on Paris)
• Provence and Côte d'Azur

And do you want to stay in a city, a town or a small village?

To turn the question around, If I asked "planning to rent a house for a month in {whatever country you live in} in April/May 2020 . . . . Any suggestions?", could you answer?

Edit: Kyle, I just looked back and saw you had a post from 2018 asking a similar question about Italy. The answers were similar, no one place can allow you to visit the whole country. Did that trip happen?

I should have been clearer. We are not intent on seeing all of France - we simply want to settle in a picturesque spot, in a small town or near a small town. But also within range of the train system. We are looking closely at Amboise, Chinon, or Bordeaux.

I would opt for Chinon of your three options, which has a good mix of interesting countryside, wine tasting, easy bike rides if you were to hire cycles and plenty of food options. I also stayed in nearby Saumur in May, which was a great base.

Bordeaux isn’t the most interesting of cities, but was ok for a day trip. Some parts of the city centre were quite rough, with lots of north African men hanging around street corners.

I’ve spent a summer in the Burgundy region. It was wonderful. Have you looked at towns there? We loved the trip but I can’t recommend the town because it taught us the “sometimes towns are too small” lesson. We spent almost a month in Provence in L’isle sur la Sorgue and that was pretty great. Another place that we liked, though our trip was quite short, is Uzes. I think it would be a great town for long visit. I have a friend from Paris who works now in New York City who adores Aix-en-Provence for trips like yours. I’d skip Bordeaux and Amboise for a month long trip. If you are committed to the Loire Valley, how about Loches? I did a bounce through day there and am committed to returning in 2021. I can’t tell if you are looking for a city, small town, village or what you hope to do during the month. There are literally thousands of places in France that have access to train transportation.

Of the three you named, I'd say Chinon. Amboise is a good base for a few days in the Loire country, especially the chateaux east of Tours. That's why it's a "tourist town." You have more time to explore. Chinon is very pretty and close to sights west of Tours, without being too far for those farther east. And a good base for exploring Brittany, Normandy, the Dordogne, and other areas -- not as day trips of course, but hopefully your month will include some overnights away from your base town.

Bordeaux is bigger, and a good base for the Dordogne or Languedoc -- again, overnights as well as day trips. And of course there are other regions worth exploring, but as Chris noted you shouldn't try to "do it all."

I'd spit it up into 2 or 3 "home bases." But I am greedy.

Have a great trip!

I spent several days in Bordeaux a few months ago (in June). I'm a small, (then) 67-year-old female. I walked around a lot--though not late at night--and never felt remotely uncomfortable. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend that others see the city on foot. It has some attractive historic areas and enough sights to keep a visitor busy for a few days if there's an interest in art or historic architecture. It is not Paris or Lyon, however, and it wouldn't be my first choice of a large city to visit; I also preferred Toulouse and Nice. And there are lots of smaller places I found more charming.

I don't think Bordeaux would be a great choice for a month-long stay, especially if there's a preference for making day-trips by train. While there are possible side-trips, the only place I chose to visit while staying in the city was St-Emilion (which I found very attractive). I feel as if most of the very popular towns and villages of the Dordogne and Lot (an area worth quite a long stay) would be better visited from a base or bases farther to the east. Without a car, I opted to relocate for a few days at a time to Agen, Bergerac, Cahors and Perigueux. I am a person who really dislikes changing hotels, but I decided that it was the most practical say to see some of the smaller places. A car would probably speed up some of those side-trips, but there would be the issue driving in and out of a rather large city, and finding parking near ones lodgings.

What it comes down to is that it's not so easy to find a base with enough reasonably-short side-trips to fill a month. It helps a lot if the base city itself can keep you busy for two weeks or so (and that's a tall order) so you don't have to keep traveling farther and farther away to fill your time. Rather than staying in one place for month, I would much prefer to establish multiple bases. That would allow for more variety of side-trips and less time spent on out-and-back transportation.

I've done what Adam suggested and had multiple bases for a long trip and a liked that lot. It really works for regional exploration. I wonder if you have considered a nearby suburb as a base. if you plan to do a lot of train trips from a "base," Paris is actually an excellent spot because it is the, for lack of a better word, hub of the French train system. I know you said a small town but you can get that feeling in some of the sweeter suburbs of Paris and still have quick access to the Parisian train systems. On of one of our first month(ish)-long trips to France, we based in Paris and did day trips via train to Reims, Amboise, and Chartres as well as two to four-day long trips to the Dordogne, Normandy, and Amsterdam. Our month-long rental was much cheaper than four individual week rentals so we did not mind paying for two sets of accommodation on the nights we were away. You might want to look at someplace like Rambouillet, which is about 40 minutes outside of Paris by train.

I'll start with ruling out places:

Normandy and Brittany (really anywhere along the west coast) is generally rainy, windy and cold in the spring. I don't think you would enjoy staying there.

Provence is known for their massive spring winds, the Mistral. A friend went to Provence in the Spring and remembers the wind more than anything else.

I visited Burgundy and Alsace in May. The area is beautiful but I felt I was there too early. Especially Burgundy in early May. It was cold, the vines were barely sprouting and many restaurants in smaller towns weren't open yet. Alsace was better but that was later in May.

I went to Loire in September. I'm really not sure when the area starts warming up? I thought Chinon was a nice place to have a base. It seems older, more authentic, than much of the Loire Valley.

I think south makes sense. It's early for the Riviera but might be a good time to visit outside of peak beach season. I visited the Languedoc area in June and thought it was perfect. The weather was off and on rainy but not cold and I beat the tourist season (every town seemed to be preparing for the onslaught). The Ardeche area is drier than Languedoc/Lot Valley/Dordogne Valley. If they don't have the same problem with the Mistral, you might really enjoy it. I was surprised how much I liked the Ardeche because you don't read much about it in travel guides.

My thought was the same as Brad's (April might be quite chilly), but I was reluctant to say that because I am abnormally cold-natured.

I spent May 2017 along the stretch of southern France from the Italian border to the Spanish border (it was June by the time I got all the way to the south). I would urge you to do your own research on recent historical weather (timeanddate.com), but in my experience early May had variable weather in the area around Nice in the sense that it was not nearly as unremittingly sunny as I had expected it to be. I was told that weather in May tends to be variable in that way, and that April may be more stable. I wouldn't hesitate to go back in May. I only had one really bad day--very chilly and pouring rain all day long. I assume there's more risk of chilly weather in April.

I wasn't worried about the mistral in Provence during May and did not encounter it. I don't know whether it's a worrisome consideration in April.

Even May is not high season in southern France. Unless you hit a local special event, lodging prices can be surprisingly affordable. I was told the Monaco Grand Prix has a lot of impact along the coast, and I assume Cannes Film Festival affects things to the west (not so much over toward Nice). There are more-local events that might cause a spike in lodging costs; I had a lot of trouble finding something affordable in Avignon/Arles when my visit coincided with something in Arles (a religious festival, I think). Since you'll be booking you accommodations well ahead of time, you shouldn't have any unpleasant surprises like that.

It's important to check opening hours for tourist sights of interest before heading out, because some places are closed an extra day each week in April - May.

I asked the same question on the forum a couple months ago. Lots of fabulous ideas and feedback. I am finally narrowing in on the South of France, debating on a few towns. Here is the thread of feedback I received— I thought it might help!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/month-long-home-base

I was in Toulouse in June and it was hot-hot-hot. But that was a few days in one particular year. Go to timeanddate.com and check out several years' worth of day-by-day weather statistics for April. That will give you far more reliable information than anecdotal reports from the few of us who have been to Toulouse in April (most likely on one occasion). For monthly stats you can use the less-helpful summary chart on the city's Wikipedia page. Note that the average highs and lows are for a period ending in 2010, since which time weather has generally gotten flakier.

Thank you to everyone! Wonderful suggestions and guidance!