Originally Posted by
DCJoe1
I would go with one of the small towns along Lake Annecy, like Veyrier-du-Lac or Menthon-Saint Bernard. Ticks all those boxes, and pretty easy to get to- 3.5 hour train ride to Annecy from Paris, then pick up a rental car at the train station and only a 15 minute drive or so.
That's definitely a pretty area -- at least from a shuttle bus window as Annecy and the lake are along the route from Geneva to a bunch of ski areas in the Vanoise.
It's rather close to Geneva too if OP potentially wanted to fly out of there on the way home.
And in that vein, what about Chamonix? May not qualify as "small town" either, but it's very charming with a beautiful setting and I imagine won't be too expensive in the shoulder season. Lots to do there - tram to Aguille du Midi, drive through Mont Blanc tunnel to Italy, etc. Not sure how access is from Paris, but it's maybe an hour or so from Geneva by car.