We arrive Orly at 1:10 PM (13:10) on a Saturday and leave CDG at 11:40 the next morning. Wife has never been to Paris. Any suggestions for spending the night in the city (including transportation ideas), seeing a site or two and having a nice dinner?

Hi E,

A sunset cruise on the Seine with a bottle of wine is always a hit.

What's your budget for dinner?

More interested in the logistics of getting into the city, hotel suggestions and then getting to CDG. A bottle of wine on the Seine sounds good to me. Who needs dinner? But a little cafe near the hotel would be fine.

Where is the hotel?

Both Orly and CDG are served by the same RER B express metro line. Staying near any station on that line would simplify your logistics.

Or stay near the Montparnasse train station. There are Air France Coaches direct from Orly and direct to CDG.

bookmarking - I am doing the same thing on 9/24. But flying in and out of CDG with a 19 hour lay over. I will use this thread for tips for myself.

Emckeeve - we are staying in a hostel Hotel du Commerce. A private room and shower for $83 for two. It is near Notre Dame which seemed centralized. I used hostelworld.com which was very easy to use with lots of infomation about the various hostel. If you do go this route make sure to pick one without a curfew, I can imagine that would be a bummer.

Thanks
Ann

Why would anybody stay in a hostel when you can stay in a hotel for 50€ ($68) or less?

I will continue to plug the Gare du Nord area, which so many people here hate, as they have not seen the transformation of the area in the past 2 years. It has hotels from 35€ to 200€ and an absolutely splendid choice of restaurants, from 4€ doner kebab to gastronomic delights at the Terminus Nord. And it is the absolutely best place to catch the RER for CDG in the morning.

Booking a hotel along the RER B train line will simplify getting to and from your hotel. It runs north-south right through the middle of Paris and serves both airports. Look over this map to get your bearings: http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan...eur&fm=pdf

Public transit from Orly to Paris boils down to two viable choices:
• Orlyval (automated train) to Antony + RER to any of several stops in Paris 9,30€
• Orlybus to Denfert-Rochereau 6,10€
If you plan to get out and about very much, you can buy a 2-Zone <i>Mobilis</i> pass that will provide unlimited transport all over the city until the trains stop running after midnight.

Getting to CDG is easy
• RER B3 8,20&euro;

Denfert-Rochereau is about fifteen minutes' walk from the Tour Montparnasse, where the Ciel de Paris restaurant offers spectacular views of the city, including the glittering Eiffel Tower. We had lunch there in August, and it was wonderful. A private elevator takes you straight to the restaurant on the 56th floor. cieldeparis.com There are many hotels of every price in Montparnasse.

The main sights are north of there, many along the river. Notre Dame is right there at the St-Michel RER stop, and the Louvre is a few minutes away. The Eiffel Tower can be reached from St-Michel on the RER C.

No hotel booked yet. It would make sense to stay close to the airport metro line. Any suggestions in the $250 range where we can walk to some sites?

Quite a few people say good things about the Novotel les Halles (www.novotel.com) for 195&euro;, from which you can walk to all of central Paris.

Also, the H&ocirc;tel Britannique (www.hotel-britannique.fr) at Ch&acirc;telet has a number of fans.

In that price range, it is extremely easy to find a hotel if you act quickly -- the next few months are the most difficult seasons of the year for people to find hotel rooms in that category. Fashion shows, trade fairs, etc. Much easier to find cheap hotels than expensive ones most of the year in Paris.