We enjoyed our 7th trip to France 10/20 to 11/6. The weather stayed nice with only 3 days of rain. I am just doing highlights for your review. We flew into Paris from Tampa and used the TGV to get to Draguignan and back quite cheaply and in comfort. AutoEurope for a nice small car rental. Around Nice, we used the great bus system to leave the car at home to get into Nice and Monaco. I could easily see how a "car less" vacation could be done out of Nice with the bus and trains into all of SE France.

Lodging - 2 great gites www.les-trois-baous.com near St. Jeannet just north of Nice and www.la.bastide-des-muriers.com near Draguignan. Very nice accomodations within easy travel of the many sites in East Provence.

We allowed 3 days at the end for Paris and used www.paris-rent.fr for a studio. Small is the word but a great location and host.

There are many sources of info for touring the area to the great small hill towns, Nice etc so I won't touch on any towns but I would HIGHLY SUGGEST a side trip to the 4 hill towns north of Ventigmia Italy. What medieval villages these are. Spectacular.
I'd suggest you visit Kevin Hin's nice blog on the Nice area french-riviera-blog for some great advise for Nice and surrounding area.

RESTUARANTS we enjoyed:

La Table d'Yves - Fayence - 29E plat du jour to start - great value
l'Escapade - Antibes- very reasonable sea food etc
Safari - Nice by Cours Saleya - fun spot - reasonable
Le Logis du Guetteur- Les Arc - upscale but reasonable - 31E Plat - terrific
Chez Hugo - Seillans - 2 mo's old but terrific
La Pesguiere - St. Tropez Near square with several other resturants. Huge menu, reasonable and great views
La Salle Marger - Flayosc - Dutch couple - fabulous 59E lunch for two.
La Farigoulette - Tourtour. good value provencal menu
REED - Paris - recently opened by Canadian lady who was a private chef for 20 years in Paris - limited menu - seemed like slow cooking with Osso Buco and Cow Cheeks etc but was very good . $100 with bottle of wine for 2
FISH - La Boisonnerie - wine bar- restuarant - terrific value I think and very well done. $100 with nice bottle of Macon wine.

That's about it. A very enjoyable trip but the SE of France didn't seem to have the excitement of the other regions. Maybe a bit too build up around the villages maybe. But still We would return for maybe a carless vacation in Nice. Again only very friendly and helpful people we found to help us.

LOVE THE FRENCH!!!!!!!