Here’s some rough itineraries that may help you finalize your plans:
 
Option 1:
 

• Madrid 2-4 days, optional daytrip(s) to Toledo and/or Segovia, or overnight trip to Sevilla with the AVE
• Barcelona 2-3 days
• Arles and/or Nîmes 2 days
• Antibes or Nice 2-5 days, includes daytrip(s) to Grasse, Menton, Cannes, Eze, and/or Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
• Florence 2-4 days, includes daytrip(s) to San Gimignano, Siena, Lucca, Pisa, and/or Pistoia
• Cinque Terre 2-3 days
• Rome 2-3 days

Option 2:

• Madrid 2-4 days, optional daytrip(s) to Toledo and/or Segovia, or overnight trip to Sevilla with the AVE
• Barcelona 2-3 days
• Arles and/or Nîmes 2 days
• Antibes or Nice 2-5 days, includes daytrip(s) to Grasse, Menton, Cannes, Eze, and/or Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
• Florence 2-3 days, includes daytrip(s) to San Gimignano, Siena, Lucca, Pisa, and/or Pistoia
• Ferry from Livorno to Sardinia, 3-4 days
• Ferry from Sardinia to Rome (Fiumicino or Civitavecchia), 2-3 days

Option 3:
 

• Madrid 2-4 days, optional daytrip(s) to Toledo and/or Segovia, or overnight trip to Sevilla with the AVE
• Barcelona 2-3 days
• Arles and/or Nîmes 2 days
• Antibes or Nice 2-3 days, includes daytrip(s) to Grasse, Menton, Cannes, Eze, and/or Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
• Ferry to Corsica, 2-4 days.
• Ferry to Sardinia, 3-4 days
• Ferry from Sardinia to Rome (Fiumicino or Civitavecchia), 2-3 days

Option 4:
 

• Madrid 2-4 days, optional daytrip(s) to Toledo and/or Segovia, or overnight trip to Sevilla with the AVE
• Barcelona 2-3 days
• Arles and/or Nîmes 2 days
• Antibes or Nice 2-5 days, includes daytrip(s) to Grasse, Menton, Cannes, Eze, and/or Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
• Cinque Terre 2-5 days, includes daytrip(s) or overnight trip to Florence or Siena 
• Ferry from Livorno to Sardinia, 3-4 days
• Ferry from Sardinia to Rome (Fiumicino or Civitavecchia), 2-3 days

Hey i recently visited southern France in Nice, and then a day trip to Monaco and Monte Carlo. Nice was ok. The city is getting construction done on the streets and the beackes are stone beaches which is kind of a bummer trying to play soccer on. The day trip to Monaco was amazing though. spending a day going throughout the city was amazing. The views, castles, shops, and everything was to me alot better than Nice.

Nice is a must-visit for its museums and Old Town.
For a sandy beach, Antibes works better.
Luv offers excellent itinerary suggestions.

Thanks for all the input—
I think an itinerary similar to option 1 makes the most sense because of time and money constraints.
I’ll check out Monaco as well, it sounds like a fun day trip.

One other place that I’d recommend is Collioure, which is just north of the border between between Spain and France. There’s a tiny station, and roughly a 10-minute walk from there to the beach.
If you’re passing through, you could see a lot in a couple of hours, and then continue by train to Perpignan and Montpellier.
Between Marseille and Nice, there are many towns with rail service and, at least in my opinion, they’re very similar—- some are bigger, some smaller. Here are a few that you likely haven’t heard of: Cassis, Bandol, Sanary-sur-Mer, Juan-les-Pins, Antibes…
Everybody has heard about Cannes and Nice but, in my opinion, Cannes is nothing special at all, and Nice is just a bigger version of many coastal towns, unless you want to see the Chagall Museum, for example.

San Sebastian was awfully cool… Would love to go back there..

Do you think it’s worth going out of the way (ish) and visiting Carcassonne?
Or are there similar castle towns in the Provence region?

Carcassonne is an amazing place, but in terms of ancient architecture, it is not your only option. I think Luv’s Itinerary #1 would work well for you.
What time of year are you going? Carcassonne can be crowded in the summer.

[image]http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d132/Capresesalad/Carcasonne2_001.jpg[/image]

I’ll be going in june.

that’s a nice looking pic btw

It might help you to have a look at Provence Beyond. Check out the Sites section.
There is nothing quite like Carcassonne, but I hear it can be seething with tourists on a summer day. (We were in the fortress when it was empty, but it was 8am, freezing, and February.)
Collioure and Toulouse would be well worth your time.