We always stay at the Hotel Jeanne d'
Arc le Marais and love it. jk

You have some time. Consider using Priceline or Priceline.co.uk, bidding cheap but staying at 4* or above. Re-bid by adding districts, or by waiting the time limit and trying again, but only raise your price slightly each time.

That way you will get a top quality hotel at a cheap price. Almost all are near a metro station if you select inside La Perpherique.

Using priceline.co.uk I stayed in the Pullman Paris Bercy, a short walk from the metro, for US$129 per night for three nights last May, see: http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/2011/06/paris-2011.html

Think of it this way; the quality you get for the price easily covers the cost of a cab to the metro if it is a bit far.

Cheers, Alan, Australia

Another option -- Air France bus. The stop at Av. Carnot near Etoile serves both Orly and CDG. We have taken the bus several times and it's a great (and inexpensive) way to and from the airports.

We recently stayed at Hotel Acacias Etoile and found it to be a very well-run, clean and attractive hotel within walking distance to the Air France bus stop. There are dozens more hotels in the area.

I'm not sure that being near a metro station is the answer in itself because I don't think there is metro service to Orly. If I'm wrong, another fodorite will correct me.

I think there is RER service from the St. Michel station to both Orly and CDG, but going to Orly you have to change to a bus somewhere along the way -- a hassle IMO. Nevertheless, there are many, many hotels in the St. Michel area.

The Sophie Germain is rather near Denfert Rochereau RER=B stop, and there is an airport bus to Orly from there, so that choice made sense. That's the only stop for the Orlybus, though. It is really near Mouton-Duvernet metro and is a bit farther than I would want to walk to to get that bus, with luggage, though. Not sure if that's why they picked it. I suppose the idea of being near a metro station is that it could connect to the RER.

So if you were near the RERB line, that would work, as you could go to Denfert Rochereau to get the Orlybus if you want, although the RER does go down there and then there is a shuttle bus or something (near done it). Orlybus might be better.

There aren't very many hotels around place Denfert Rochereau, unfortunately. The closest one is Hotel du Lion, which is a 3* hotel. I don't know what it is like other than its website, but for one night, I would give it a try for location in this situation http://www.paris-hotel-lion.com/ It's actually better located for this purpose than the Sophie Germain.

Otherwise, I'd recommend a hotel near the Luxembourg RERB stop rather than St Michel which is much more hectic and noisy. Either would do, of course. There are lots of hotels within walking distance of that RER stop. like the Elyssa Luxembourg, I tried to stay there once, it has good reviews, but it was booked http://elysa-hotel-paris.com/

Staying near the Etoile would also work.

I'm not clear on this driving issue, though. Where is the car going in Paris?