In November i will travel to France for work! I'm open to any advice : travel tips, places to know or whatever you think may be necessary or interesting!
Don't go outside at night alone in most of the big cities, especially Paris, Marseilles, Nantes or Grenoble.
For places to know or to visit, it really depends on what you like, but I'd suggest you to just not focus on Paris or Provence, for France has much more to offer than those overcrowded/touristic places. You can have a wide range of cultures (or what remains of them), landscapes, histories, architectures... if you take cares a bit.
You may need a car for your experience to be more convenient if you want to explore more though. Which is typically the case if you want to see less touristic, but very attractive places with more freedom. (You shoudl be abel to access most of the places with public transportations, but, typically, where I live, you may have only 1 bus per day to reach some destinations that are more remote, or take half a day instead of 1h of driving, without sparing any money in the end).