Paris... and where else in France??!
 

Spending 10 days in France in early June - 5 days in Paris and 5 days to travel to other places. Suggestions of where to go, preferably via train, but can rent a car if it makes more sense. Completely open to regions - will be traveling with mother and sister who aren't big museum people but like walking, hiking, boats, the coast/mountains, good food, good scenery, nice people.

Any and all ideas are appreciated!

The choices are endless:

Burgundy
Alsace
Normandy
Champagne (not as scenic I thought)
Loire Valley
Brittany

Best to take a look at a guide book and see what catches your interest. With 5 days I would choose 1 area.

Renting a car is a much better way to explore France. Yes, it can be done with trains and buses but that will limit where you can go and when you can go there and will require a lot more planning as you'll have to figure out your train and bus schedules in advance.

You're question is so broad it's difficult to answer. Even though you only have five days you could go all the way to the south of France by taking a TGV train from Paris to say Avignon (only 2 hours and 40 minutes by TGV from Paris), renting a car on arrival, exploring for five days and then drop the car off and take the TGV back to Paris.

I would suggest you'll get better advice if you have a region in mind since everyone will have suggestions and they'll all be different. The only way you can know what is the best option for you is to do some research yourself. Go to your local library and get some guidebooks and read up. Since you said you like the coast and mountains you might start by looking into the Côte d'Azur (Alpes-Maritimes département), the Pays Basque region (Pyrénées-Atlantiques département) and the area around Collioure and Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales département). These are the 3 places where you'll be near to the coast and mountains.

thank you. have done bordeaux...

friends had recommended: SE (provence/nice), alsace, brittany and loire valley.

i'll do some more research and then come back once a region has been identified!

I might consider Provence in June. You may even see some early lavender in bloom.