We're going in June. How does this sound?
Day 1- arrive Paris. Check into hotel, hang out.
Day 2- Paris.
Day 3- Paris.
Day 4- Train to Aix. Meet friends there.
Day 5- Provence hang out.
Day 6- Provence hang out.
Day 7- Rent car in Aix. Drive to Loire Valley.
Day 8- In Loire Valley.
Day 9- In Loire Valley.
Day 10- return car (where?). Train back to Paris.
Day 11- depart Paris.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
We have been to Paris and Provence before, so this is really just a hang out kind of trip. We won't be doing too much in each place, just enjoying, exploring. But we've never been to Loire Valley.
We are on a tight budget, but won't be paying for much of anything while in Provence.
Thanks!
-Dana

Why not take the train from Aix to the Loire and rent the car there? The drive from Aix is long and not particularly inspiring.

What ST. Cirq said. Will you have a car in Provence? That's where you need one too.

Sounds good to take the train from Aix to Loire and then rent a car. Where in Loire does the train go and where can we rent/return the car? My thought is to have the car for the two days while we're there, train back to Paris.

Check out www.sncf.com for train schedules. I should imagine there's a direct train from Aix to Tours or Orléans, or maybe a one-connection trip. You could pick up the car in either of those places and drop it off wherever you wanted to. You could drive it to Chartres to see the cathedral there, leave the car there, and train back to Paris in a short time.
I do think you'll find that car rentals of fewer than 3 days are expensive, though.