Planning context
Start with the trip shape.
A city-led trip, a chateaux-and-river trip, a rural village stay, and a Provence city base need different amounts of time and different transport. Choose that shape before collecting more pins.
Paris brings museum and neighbourhood depth. The Loire rewards a measured chateaux rhythm. Dordogne needs rural time and usually a car. Aix gives Provence a walkable city base.
Limit the number of bases.
Every base change consumes packing, checkout, transfer, arrival, and orientation time. Two places that look close on a national map can still weaken a short trip when the transfer sits between them.
Protect complete days on the ground. A smaller route with useful evenings usually works better than a broad route built around arrival and departure days.
Continue with one destination guide.
Once the country-level choice is clear, open the guide for that place. It can answer the neighbourhood, regional base, transport, and daily pacing questions without repeating the national comparison.
If the choice is still unclear, compare trip shapes again instead of opening several accommodation searches at once.