Comparing the 2 airlines Ryanair is about 1/2 the price, however the airports they use seem to be further from the city. Any opinions if that is a significant negative?

Add the cost of the transfer. And then ask yourself how much do you value your time.

<<< Any opinions if that is a significant negative? >>>

It adds about 2 hours to the travel time plus you have the cost of getting to & from the airports - you should be able to find the costs for Ryanair on their website under "Destinations"

Also check what the REAL fare will be - Ryanair adds lots of cost for CC use (per passenger per flight), checked baggage for check-in. Also check the weight of your bags as their excess baggage fees are punative

www.ryanair.com/site/EN/faqs.php?sect=CHARGES

If you do decide to book Ryanair check each stage of the booking process VERY CAREFULLY as Ryanair are notorious for "helpfully" adding optional fees to your booking which you then have to remove - and in some cases the means for removal is not very obvious.

There is no truth in the rumour BTW that Ryanair are to charge for toilet use - and that you have to book at the time you make the booking

alanRow, That's hilarious!

It'll come - O'Leary's mantra is "if you don't need it you shouldn't pay for it" which actually means "we'll stop you using it for free so we can charge you a lot for it"

Why not? Plenty of bathrooms cost money to use in Europe anyways. Why not on a Ryanair flight?

Why not just fly EasyJet from BCN to Paris Orly?

Having used the Ryan Air airports in Paris and Rome I'd mention that for people so worried about their time you should also figure that these smaller airports entail MUCH less delay in traveling. In Paris it was really just Ryan Air using it and it was a tiny building. It was great. In and out in no time flat.