A country that understands the house museum better than anywhere, and closes on Tuesdays to prove it.
Tuesday is the national closing day and it has caught me out twice. Build the week around it: Monday for the private foundations, Tuesday for the train.
Lyon is two hours from Paris and Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a hire car from Nice. Both are perfectly possible as a night away; neither is possible as a morning.
The great houses keep small hours in winter and no hours at all in August. February is cold, empty and the correct answer.