What I suggest is: we take 3 days (but it could be more) to get there.

Day 1: we visit Burgundy (including a visit of the Vezelay basilica and a wine tasting in Chablis.

Day 2: we drive to Lyon. We visit Lyon and sleep there.

Day 3: we drive to Saint-Raphael (250 miles / 4 hours).

There would be many others things on the way, I'm just giving you the headlines here.

If you fly back home from Nice and you want to visit Aix-en-Provence, it would make sense to add one more day here to visit Aix before as it's on the way.

And/or on the way to Aix-en-Provence, just before Avignon, if you add one more day, we could make a small detour to visit the Ardeche Canyon.

Depending on your time (and your motivations), we can use mostly the freeways (which are surprisingly beautiful) or the smaller roads like the Napoleon route. Whatever your choice is, the more time you have, the more surprises I have in stock for you! (I'll give you options).

In order to avoid traffic jams (particularly in the summer) the trick is to never leave Paris on a Friday or a Saturday and to never return to Paris on a Sunday! 80% of the French travel on the week-ends because:

1) their vacation from work starts and ends on a week-end.

2) flat rentals go from Saturday to Saturday.

We will not want to travel on the week-ends because:

1) we hate traffic jams (I speak for you but that's an easy one).

2) we don't care if we arrive at our destination in the middle of the week because we know the owner of the flat where we'll be staying on the Riviera and he's kinda cool...

My idea for a great road trip is that every evening we have a great dinner (not necessarily expensive) then sleep in a nice little hotel (or "chateau"). I'll give you many options of course, all with amazing price/value ratio. The way I operate is: I give you options (and links), you choose, you make the bookings yourself (for your room and mine) and you please pay them the deposit directly with your credit-card! You will therefore pay the best direct-promotional-price for your room (or suite) and for mine (I'm happy with a regular room). And in some of the chateaux, if I contact them first and let them know you are coming with me, if it's not too busy, they will upgrade you!

If you travel with me, everything is "A la carte" and customized to your needs: you choose the number of days, all accomodations, all restaurants. You decide if you want to leave early or sleep in. I make all the suggestions, you call the shots. And you're allowed to change your mind. Don't you love the idea?

Of course I'll give you a quote in advance for the whole trip depending on how many days we spend together and everything but, for you to have an idea, for 2 to 4 people, it will cost you per day no more than a "full-day excursion with car" that you can check in my "pricing" area.

Any way works: you could fly directly to Nice and I pick you up there. You could take the train from Paris to Saint-Raphael (4h40 ride). But my favorite option is that we drive there together from Paris.

We could make the drive in one day but it would take us 8 hours (545 miles) if we have no traffic and if we don't stop and it would be no fun for you (nor for me!).

This is an English map of the 18th century: the French Riviera stops at Nice (which isn't French yet).

Notice how they just mention Frejus, St-Tropez, St-Margaret island (but not Cannes) and Antibes.