axolotl

I put my panniers, handlebar bag, & helmet in a duffel bag. I've got a duffel bag with wheels, so it's easy to handle.

I converted my BF suitcase to a trailer on one occasion. A friend & I were flying to the Iles de la Madeleine in Quebec, and flying home from Charlottetown on PEI. I was touring with a friend who also has an NWT and conversion hardware to turn the suitcase to a trailer. In reality, we only had to pull the trailers on one day because we just did day trips on the Iles de la Madeleine. We took the ferry to Souris on PEI and biked with the trailer to Charlottetown. We were able to leave the trailers at a B&B in Charlottetown while we did a loop tour for several days on PEI. The bike & trailer were very stable, and part of that day's ride with the trailer was on the unpaved Confederation Trail with some rain. But my preference is to tour with panniers only. All of my other tours with my Bike Fridays (after my last bike trip to France I bought a NWT Lite, a more lightweight bike for lighter cyclists. (I'm smaller than you.) My original NWT is over 20 years old. I've packed and unpacked the NWT a few dozen times. I don't find it difficult, but with the trailer hardware, it was definitely more challenging to get everything to fit in the suitcase. The NWT was designed as a touring bike and travel bike and it performs exceedingly well, including in the mountains. I doubt any other folder out there is as good for touring. I've never had any serious damage to my NWT when turned over to an airline, train, or bus.

On most of my tours, I haven't had a friend who could store my empty NWT suitcase & duffel bag while I toured, like my Paris friends. I've usually arranged to leave the empty luggage at a hotel I stayed at on at least the 1st night, and at least my last night. I've never had a problem. The only time I ever had to pay was a nominal amount in Thailand. My last real tour, the winter before Covid hit, was in Colombia. Ultimately, my hotel in Medellin was willing to store the suitcase & duffel, but before I had arranged that, I asked a Warmshowers member there if he could store them for me. He said yes.

The SNCF (French national railroads) has been making it more difficult to travel with a bike in recent years. 10 years ago, it seemed that every non-TGV train had self-roll-on service. That's no longer true. Some TGV lines accept a limited number of bikes (with a paid reservation, and you turn over your bike to them). I read a tip from a French cyclist many years ago, that I've since done multiple times on TGVs: I pack the largest plastic garbage bag I can find. I remove the pedals on my bike, and then fold it and put it in the plastic bag to take on a TGV. Conductors have always been OK with it. The 3 of us did that for the TGV from Paris-Libourne, and our return from Bordeaux-Paris. We were willing to pay to check our bikes, but there was no bike space left on either train.

There are so many interesting things to see and do in the Dordogne & Lot valleys, that we were not riding vast distances each day. We visited multiple chateaux, caves, gardens, & museums, in addition to exploring some of the wonderful medieval villages. I'd be happy to give you suggestions.

You also mentioned flying to Aix-en-Provence. Just north of there is a very nice signposted suggested bike loop in the Luberon region. I think it extends from Cavaillon to Forqualquier and back. One-half is on the south side of the Luberon range, the other half on the north side. It's mostly on small roads with minimal traffic. The northern half has more people and more traffic. Both halves have some extremely pretty villages. It is not at all flat (I think that Forqualquier is about 600m higher than Cavaillon), but it wasn't very difficult. West of Cavaillon, there was pleasant and mostly flat cycling near the Pont du Gard & Arles. This region would have comfortable cycling temperatures, I think, in late-April & May, as well as late September & October. I was there in the 2nd half of May and it was pretty hot.

The 1st photo is a couple of our NWTs in the Dordogne valley in a village which happened to have been on that summer's Tour de France route. The village still had Tour decorations up.

The 2nd photo was taken from a promontory at the Chateau de Marqueyssac gardens overlooking the Dordogne river toward the village of La Roque-Gageac.

I forgot to mention that between Lyon & Macon, you'd be riding through the Beaujolais region. I haven't bike in that one section, however, but since you mentioned vineyards, I thought I should add that.