If you are new to solo travel, try adding some days at the end of your tour to travel on your own.  By then, you are more familiar with the country and can also ask your tour guide for tips (like information on trains) before the tour concludes.  On this tour, you could stay in Nice extra days, take the TGV back to Paris for more sightseeing, or fly out of Nice to another location.  I added a week on my own and part of that time I went to a cider farm in Normandy and visited the D-Day beaches.

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The Loire to the South of France tour was a fun, beautiful, and interesting experience and a great introduction to much of what France has to offer.  We were blessed with 3 awesome guides and a group of about 20 kind, fascinating, Rick Steves tour members helping make this a very worthwhile excursion that I highly recommend.