Road Trip Yamanouchi to Kyoto: which route?

Hi There Japan Experts,

We're looking for route/overnight recommendations between Nagano and Kyoto.

We'll be skiing in Shigakogen, Nagano late feb and, when we've exhausted ourselves on the slopes, we'd like to take a lazy week to travel to Kyoto, where we'll spend four days plus change (before returning to Tokyo Narita on the Shinkansen). Rather than try to use public transport the whole way between Shigakogen(Yamonouchi) we thought we'd make our way down from the mountains to Nagano city, pick up a car and take a two day road-trip between there and Kyoto - overnighting somewhere. We did this last year in Hokkaido and really enjoyed ourselves on the scenic, safe mountain roads there. Country roads in Japan are a joy to drive on (when they're graded!).

Looking at the maps it seems to me a good route might be Bus from Shigakogen to Nagano (collect car) Nagano - Matsumoto - Takayama (stay overnight) but then I am uncertain of the landscape between Takayam and Kyoto. We don't have a great interest in Nagoya so thought we'd swing west to Lake Biwa region, but we're not sure how interesting this is?

We'd be really keen to hear anyone's recommendations for the best road trip options on this route, or even putting us right about a better route from the outset!

Thank you very much,
Brendan (and five others)