Best ways to travel between towns???? Please confirm :)

A one hour flight is going to have a lot of time on the front and back end. Door to door it's a lot more than an hour. The train starts and stops in or near the city center. When you fly, what if the flight gets cancelled, or delayed as is so common these days? Trains may be cancelled too but not as frequently. Up and down the riviera, train is preferable. No way do you want car in that area, in my opinion.

Best options are:
Paris to Nice-Fly
Nice to Villefranche -Train
Villefranche to Eze& Antibes-Bus to ST Tropez by Train
Villefranche to IR (Sta Margarita is wonderful). Train but routing may go thru Milan?
IR to Venice-Train will go via Milan.
I have been to all the places you list and I recom the above. One xtra note if you rent a car in Villefranche you can see all the corniche villages (as well as Eze) better than by bus.

I think my cut off is if train is 4+hrs then flight. I agree flight from CDG to Nice then quick bus/train to VF.

Ok so rent a car in FR to see all small towns...but return it and take trains to IR and then train from IR to VCE? I was wondering what flight/train comparison is for IR-VCE. I will check right now!

Thanks!!

You definitely do not want to rent a car in France and return it in Italy. You will pay a hefty drop off charge if you do that.