We have about 17 days to do Europe. My wife wants to go to Provence. I am getting cheap tickets in and out of Switzerland and I am very interested in going there. My wife and I both agree that Cinque Terre looks cool. We have decided that with this much trip renting a car seems to be our best bet. Dates are approx Aug 7-24.

So far we have:

first day Geneva. I want to spend it there because I don't want to drive right after the red-eye flight. I imagine Geneva is worth a day anyways.

Days 2-5 in Avignon France. Haven't really planned it out but I figured 4 days was good for that region.

Days 6-8 in Nice. We hear the beach is not that great here so we could do even less time.

Days 9-11 in Cinque Terre. Is this the right amount of time?

Days 12-14 in Lake Lucerne. My wife is not wanting to spend too much time in switz. She likes mountains but I think she was looking for more time spent in warm places. She is fine with three days in switzerland though. This seemed like the best place to me based on my reading for a short swiss excursion. Does this choice make sense. I am also thinking that I may drop off car in lucerne if we don't need it. We will take train to ZRH and fly home from there.

So if I spend that amount of time in those places I still have three days left. What do I do? I have thought of florence and pisa, italian lakes region, Milan, french alps, interlaken. Any suggestions.