South of France - where to go and stay?
Hi, I am planning a vacation in France this summer with the wife. We will be in France for about a week before moving on to Italy. We plan on flying into Paris, staying there for a few days, and then heading down to the Rhone area for a day, and then over to Nice for a few days. We are not very familiar with south France at all, and could use some suggestions for where to stay, how long, and what to do. We would like to do some winery-hopping and make our way though some of the nice Rhone valley wineries. Is Avignon a good place to stay in order to do that? After that we planned on going to Nice.. the Hyatt in Nice is cheap on points, so we figured we could stay there 2 or 3 nights and make that a base, but not exactly sure what to do there. Do you guys have any suggestions? More about us - We are in our late 20s and have no problem with high paced trips. We will probably rent a car unless it is super easy to get around without one. The trip should be focused on relaxing, wine, eating, and enjoying the scenery. We don't speak French and I couldn't even come close to faking it. Any thoughts?