I appreciated your travel report very much. It is exactly what I thought the high end tour would be like.
I've been tussling with my husband for weeks over my desire to avoid a tour and bike in France independently with my 18 year old daughter. He'd like us to sign up for a Backroads tour, which is a lovely high end operation. I was going nuts trying to comb through all the tour companies and bike rental companies to find what I wanted.
I'm going through the hassle of bringing 2 bikes on the plane with me (my daughter is currently living in Geneva, Switzerland) because I couldn't find bikes to rent that I was confident I'd want to be on for a week. I'm using tour books and bringing panniers and planning to stay in little b&b's as I don't want amazing hotels and huge meals. We're also planning to bike 50 - 70 miles/day, and most tours have 20 - 30. We're going to the Burgundy region (Lyon or Dijon as starting/ending point) in late June/early July as it is a little less known, beautiful countryside with rolling hills and during those times Provence and the Loire Valley will be full of tourists. We're also planning to ride around Lake Geneva.
Now I'm feeling more confident I'm on the right track. My only worry right now is how the heck I'm going to manage pulling two bike cases through the airport along with my suitcase!