We have just returned from 4 weeks in France. We built our trip around two weeks of e-biking (self-guided tour, through Le Velo Voyageur, https://www.levelovoyageur.com/en/). Top level review: Touring by bike (or e-bike) is absolutely the way to go! This is a great way to see France through the back door, to slow down our pace and become more of a visitor and less of a tourist.
We flew into Bordeaux. LONG trip from Seattle, via LHR and CDG with tight connections. Thank you to Travel Forum participants who gave us some advice on navigating CDG and to Air France for being gracious in boarding us once we arrived at the gate about 3 or 4 minutes after boarding closed.
A few days in Bordeaux allowed us to learn more about French wines and French history at the Musée du Vin et Negoce (not the big fancy new wine museum) & Musée d'Aquitaine.
Then we took the train to Bergerac where we started our one week bike loop up the Dordogne and Vezere rivers. Highlights were Font-de-Gaume and the National Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies, Lascaux, a wonderful dinner at Le Grand Bleu in Sarlat, Le Roque Gageac, Chateau Milandes and a lovely hotels that Velo Voyageur booked - La Roseraie in Montagnac and Hotel Clement V in Belves. Luggage transfers from hotel to hotel were all perfect.
We then traveled by train from Bergerac to Nantes where we visited someone who we had hosted as an exchange student many years ago. From there, we took the train to Blois and began our second one week bike tour, again through Velo Voyageur, down the Loire Valley to Amboise, Tours, Azay-Le-Rideau, Chinon and finally Saumur. Chateaux along the way were Chaumont, Chateau Lucé in Amboise, Chateau Royal in Amboise, Chenonceaux, Villandry, the Fortress in Chinon, and Chateau Ussé. The Loire has many well-marked bike routes along trails & farm roads. Ironically, the bikes we had in the relatively level Loire Valley were lighter, better geared, and more powerful than the less-than-fully-satisfactory bikes the Velo Voyageur's contractor supplied in the hillier Dordogne.
Along the way, we met a number of travelers and locals -- both at restaurants and sites we visited, but also at stores and along the trails. Between our limited French (although I did study some over the past 6 to 8 months to improve my ability to converse) and some locals' English, we were frequently able to converse about personal histories and stories - not just needs. :-)
After our second week of biking, and our five days in Bordeaux (3) and Nantes (2), we had a week left for Chartres, Versailles and Paris. Chartres was lovely. We were pleased to have two nights there, so we were able to enjoy Chartres en Lumière (which I had first learned of through the RS Travel Forum). We also stumbled onto an amazing public library there, Médiathèque L'Apostrophe, which was in a remarkable and fascinating building, with an interesting collection and special exhibit in the lobby. Versailles was actually rather hum-drum, despite being so large and monumental. Neither my wife nor I were impressed by the art or by the gardens. Everything is large and grand, but Chaumont's and Villandry's gardens were far more elegant.
For our final four nights and three days in Paris, other than for an excursion to Giverny we tried to stay off the tourist track even though we were staying just over a block away from the Luxembourg Gardens in the 6th Arr. We took in the very nice exhibit about Leon Monet (Claude's brother) currently at the Musée Luxembourg, Maison Balzac, the Sarah Bernhardt exhibit currently at the Petit Palais and some covered passages in the 9th and 2nd Arr. We also took in a lovely not-to-be-named street of shops and more - barely in the 5th, but far from the Seine.
British Airways cancelled our flight home, so we took advantage of an extra afternoon & night in Paris to go the Musée Orangerie. (FORUM: Departure from CDG - A cautionary tale.)