This may sound basic, but when hub and I went to Paris, we really loved the bus tour. A great overview of the city, some history, put all the beautiful parts in context. Really added to our overall appreciation of the experience.
Also enjoyed a daylong bus tour to the Loire Valley - gorgeous castles, history, etc.
We stayed at this vineyard chateau hotel in Chateauneuf-du-pape, which seems like it might be the kind of thing you are looking for: Hôtel - Restaurant - Spa - Hostellerie du Château des Fines Roches I still get their emails regarding special dinners coming up, etc., and one happened to arrive this morning, so I thought of it when I saw your message.
We only did a wine tour here but walked the grounds and itâs beautiful. Very peaceful.
Iâm sorry I canât help you concerning vineyard experiences around Nice nor make Tuscany comparisons. I donât drink (my DH has a designated driver 
) and I tag along just for fun. He picked the vineyard which did not have a restaurant, but we did have a good time. He was able to sample wines and had the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. Weâve done tours in Napa and Portugal (Porto-he likes port) and the tour I mentioned was a little more low key, but it was also after the harvest.
As for things to do in and around Nice it depends on what you like to do. We had no trouble finding things of interest for usâŚand we were there almost 2 weeks and didnât lay on the beach at all. Itâs not our thing. (Fyi the beach is rocky in Nice)
Look into a food tour in Nice early in your stay to get the lay of the land. We did The Taste of Nice. We had also booked a walking tour in Monaco thru Riviera Bar Crawl.
Lastly, be aware that depending on the dates youâll be there, things might be closed or have different hours. There were a couple of instances where a restaurant was closed for a week and museum hrs were different at the last minute due to it being the off-season. We were on vacation and always take the attitude of âjust go with the flowâ. It had minimal impact and we had a fabulous time.
My D spent a month in Annecy after her freshman year of college and just loved it. Its on a lake at the foot of the Alps and has a very cute old town.
Thatâs something we try to do in any large city as well. Another thing weâve enjoyed doing are guided walks. The âParis Walksâ company is excellent www.paris-walks.com (be careful of the imitator that uses a very similar web address with 2 hyphens)
Agreeâif you just go to only one art museum, it should be Musee dâOrsay!
In Paris, we stayed at hotel La Comtesse in the 7th arrodissment and it was so charming! We had a view of the Eiffel tower and I loved seeing it each day. Favorite experiences: walking around St. Germaine, visiting musee DâOrsay, and being on top of lâarc de triomphe at sunset seeing the Eiffel tower and view of the city. Favorite dinner: Le Florimond, where we saw and met European travel expert Rick Steves! He said that is one of his favorite restaurants.
Walking tours are great! H also took a bike tour when we were in Paris (Iâm not a big bike rider, so I went to museum that H wasnât enthusiastic about when he did the bike tour) and he loved it. If you like bike riding, bike tours can be fun. That said, you donât need to be an excellent bike rider to do the tourâŚMy stepbrother and his wife did a bike tour in Rome and really enjoyed. My co-worker has done bike tours in Amsterdam and Paris and thought they were wonderfulâŚ
Two âtoursâ we loved (travelling with older teens at the time) was a night time bike ride through Paris. We did this the first day of arrival and it kept us awake. Was very easy, fun to see the city at night and easy riding. If you can ride bike - you can do this ride. Would be fine for just adults too.
We also loved the small group bike and Versailles tour - meet guide in Paris, train to Versailles, head to local market and buy a picnic lunch - bike the ground of Versailles (hard to see so much by foot), picnic on the grounds and then end your day touring the buildings and catching a train on your own back to Paris. Again - easy bike ride and exploring the market and buying a great picnic were also highlights.
We also did a private guide tour of The Louvre - easy access, amazing to have an art expert walk you though the museum and provide so much context.
Every dinner we had in Paris was excellent - I did a lot of research and steered away from places in many of the more popular tourist guides.
We did NO research on restaurants in Paris and everything was great! I canât remember a bad meal. We just roamed and picked places that had a menu we liked and seemed popular.
There is so much to do! Versailles is definitely a must if youâve never been. Guess advice is to try to whittle down the long list and spring for guided âskip the lineâ tours when possible. We did one for the Louvre and it was well worth it. They have docent tours but they were booked up for tours in English.
Thatâs what we did in Paris too. The only reservation we had was for lunch at Musee dâOrsay.
OP - We stayed at a Hilton property near the opera house. Loved the location!
Iâd recommend stopping for pastries at Lenotre. There are a couple of locations in Paris.
I also second a day trip to Monaco when you are in Nice.
we loved the nighttime glass topped bus tour of the lights in Paris - really fun and took you to neighborhoods where you might not want to be at night but could do in the bus easily.
Not sure if anyone mentioned⌠there will be Rugby Worldcup in France in September. Few games in Paris, Nice, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux. Iâd check the match schedule and plan to avoid the crowd during your stay. (ETA: Iâm not a sports fan so I would avoid but if you enjoy, it might be fun) Last April museums required to book your time slot even when I had Paris museum pass. SO check with each museum.
I actually did see that on TripAdvisors, but thank you for bringing it to attention on this board! It does impact our dates, so thankful we can know that as we are planning.
This makes it extra important to get train tix immediately. Even if you get other reservations for hotel etc. those train tix will go even faster.
We have also never done any research on restaurants before our trips to Paris. We just choose places we think look interesting and have never been disappointed.
We were in Paris for a day recently (stopover) and chose to skip Paris, go to Reims and the Champagne area instead. Beautiful - even the drive down there was great. We got to do a tour at Moet and Chandon and taste some champagne. Lovely lunch at a hotel close by (didnât look at reviews or anything - just wandered in). The area looked great - weâd love to go back and spend a few days there. Very close to paris, but you definitely get to experience the french countryside.
We did a nighttime bike/boat tour with Fat TireâFirst the group bike tour including a stop for ice cream at Berthillon (sp?) and biking by places like Notre Dame and the Louvre. Then a boat ride up the Seine past the ET, with wine. Quick bike ride past the ET to the original meeting place.
A highlight of my visit to Parisâpossibly my favorite part.
Like others said, we didnât make any reservation or seek out particular restaurants, just stopped in spots that looked good, mostly in the Canal St. Martin district because thatâs where our AirBnB was. (We stayed inside our own tiny house in an apartment building courtyard. Absolutely charming. )
We went to Paris with another couple for 7 nights in 2018, stayed in a rental apartment near Notre Dame. We had no trouble filling a week, including a daytrip to Versailles. Would have liked time to go to Monet gardens and many other sights too.
We got the museum pass to save money, but the unexpected perk was saving time in line (though of course we still had to stand in the lines for having bags inspected).