Itinerary help - France & Italy
 

We are travelling to France and Italy with our 3 children (ages 3,8,10) in June/July.
I need some trip planning ideas to fill in two weeks of the trip.
here is our itinerary so far:
Week 1 - Flying into Marseilles, stay with extended family in a rented house outside of Marseilles
Week 2 - ?????
Week 3 - Sant"Antonio resort in Montepulciano
Week 4 - ????
Week 5 - apartment in Paris

Our criteria are: $2000-$2500 US per week
Family-friendly of course!
At this point we are open to flying/train/driving.

Basically...if this was your trip, what would YOU do?????

The logical second week would be a gite above Nice, giving you the opportunity to see the Haute Provence as well as that part of the coast. You will need a car. We stayed near Grasse and felt we were close enough to the coast.

I would rearrange the schedule into a more linear progression: Fly into Paris, move on to Marseille, then to Italy, flying home from the nearest international airport in Italy.

>>I would rearrange the schedule into a more linear progression: Fly into Paris, move on to Marseille, then to Italy, flying home from the nearest international airport in Italy.

I think their family might miss them that week in Marseille.

Yes, we need to fly into Marseille to be with family. We want to end the trip in Paris since my husband is a huge road biker and wants to see the 100th Tour de France finish (I know - but it's his thing!).
I agree with spending the 2nd week somewhere around Nice. Any fave spots?
What about that week between Montepulciano and Paris? I tossed around exploring the Loire a bit but have decided another week in Italy is a must.
Any thoughts on another area not too far from Sant"Antonio to spend a week? Possibly somewhere we could do a day trip into Florence?

I love the Loire Valley, but a week would be a tad long for me. And I know it would be too long for my kids at that age,, 3 nights ,, you can see one or two chateau a day and enjoy it.

Nice is a great base for the whole area you can daytrip so easily to many places , its ONE euro to take the public bus to Monaco, ( maybe kids would enjoy the aquiriaum) ( so 5 euros there and 5 euros back for family, thats waaaayy cheaper then renting a car and gas and parking). Also we took bus to monaco, spent a few hours there then stopped at Eze Sur Mer for a beach break and swim on way home, we did have to pay another euro to get back on bus though.

Beaches in Cannes are sandy, kids might enjoy a day there, and I didn't make it to Villefranche or Eze , but would do those too next time..