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Hi,
My first recommendation is to not try to see the whole country during one visit. The season of the year is also important. Paris (which is the first place to see), is not at its best in August, for example. The south of France is busy and hot in summer also. After Paris, The Chataux of the Loire are worth visiting. Take the TGV somewhere for the experience of what a railroad should be, probably to Marseille. I would rent a car there and visit old villages and vineyards. Nice can be somewhat touristy, unless you visit the back country. Try to learn a few words of French, at least please and thank you. Bon voyage. vttJohn

What do you think it will be like in June. This is a trip we are planning to celebrate my husbands retirement from the Air Force. He retires in June. We were planning on doing Paris and the Montpelier/Marseille coastline.

My husband, at one point in time new French, and amazingly can still understand much of it. I will probably purchase the Rosetta program for us to practice. Thanks for the tips.

Paris and Marseilles are very far apart to be the two places you choose for a vacation. Why not pick two that are closer together this time? That way you have more time to enjoy & explore, and less spent driving or on a train.
If you really want to do Paris, I'd suggest adding the Loire Valley, only 1 hr by TGV from Paris. Or, if you want a bit of coastline, add Normandy and/or Brittany. If warm sunshine is important, you could fly into Nice (Delta flies there from NY), then go to Marseilles/Montpelier. There are lots of areas outside Nice that would be beautiful and not yet too crowded in June.
July & August are the months that everyone in Europe goes on vacation.
My favorite areas are around Bordeaux and the Dordogne Valley in SW France. They offer great wines, medieval castles & villages, prehistoric caves, great outdoor markets, as well as canoeing/kayaaking on the rivers. You can reach Bordeaux by TGV from Paris (3hrs).

Paris in June is lovely with nice weather. I attended the NYU extension in Paris for summer school and throughly enjoyed myself though come August and the Parisians abandon the city to the Americans and then it can be very trying.
As a student, economy was essential and there was a little restaurant near the Ecole des beaux-arts on the rive gauche. One evening as I approached the restaurant, there was a very loud hubbub of shouting voices. I thought perhaps is was a manifestation but it turned out to be a large American family with children screaming, shouting while trying to climb the iron work fence of the Ecole des beaux-arts. As I approached the door of the restaurant, the father elbowed me aside and pushed his way into the restaurant. The hostess saw this and took my hand and seated me at a table--it was community dining--no separate tables. She returned to the Americans and I hid behind my menu in total embarrassment of possibly being considered associated with those people. The father in very loud voice demanded that they were going to eat upstairs several times--obviously of the school that louder one spoke--greater the comprehension of the listener thereby breaching the language barrier. Since there was no upstairs the hostess ushered them off to a back corner of the restaurant.

Hi again,
If you are in the south of France, you must visit the Pont du Gard. It is not far from Avignon. The aqueduct itself is spectacular, and the visitor center nearby has a very interesting and informative set of displays describing the construction and the surveying skills needed to move water so far over hilly terrain. There is also a restaurant on the site. Also lots of parking.
vttjohn

My husband and I returned on Oct. 11 from a two-week trip through some of the wine regions of
France: Champagne, Alsace and Bourgogne. We have been to France many times and I was looking forward to practicing my French. However, most of the staff in hotels, restaurants and shops speak, or at least understand, English fairly well, so I did get lazy sometimes and revert to English. We found not as many American tourists in these areas - more Germans. However, everyone is very pleasant. I thought that food and wine in France seemed more expensive than other places in Europe, e.g. Italy. There are always formule menus that are reasonable, but, since we wanted to try more exotic fare, such as frog's legs, pigeon, rabbit, sweetbreads, we mostly ate a la carte.

It is very easy to go from Paris to Marseille by TGV in less than 3hrs from the Gare de Lyon. Tickets are not cheap unless you can get them in advance at a reduced fare.

In Marseille, you can rent a car and discover Aix en Provence, Avignon, St Remy de Provence, les Baux, Arles, Pont du Gard and Montpelier and Nimes and many other places between. I can recommend two loveLy places in St Remy where we have staid last year, if you are interested.

You can also take a TGV back to Charles de Gaulle directLy from the south, no need to go back to Paris. The Michelin Guides are pretty good, the green for tourism and the red for hotel and restaurant. A must.....

If you plan to take the train I suggest French rail passes. If you do go to Avignon, don't miss seeing the bridge and the Papal Palace. I promised myself I'e someday dance on that bridge (because of the dong) but so far I have not.

I have a lot of good info on my website: view link

Thank you pixfield. I've book marked it.