Montreal to Paris via Orly: a new option for Quebec travellers

Paris without going through Roissy

Four carriers link Montreal to Paris. Three land at Charles-de-Gaulle. The fourth lands at Orly, and that difference changes the end of the journey more than you would expect.

French bee has served Montreal since the spring of 2025. What is new this autumn fits in one sentence: the route stops being seasonal. It ran from May to October, and it now runs year-round. For anyone who wants to see Paris in February, when the queues vanish and the cafés return to their normal size, a door has just opened.

Orly, and the metro that reaches the centre in 35 minutes

Here is the detail nobody explains properly in Quebec. Since June 2024, metro line 14 has connected Orly to the heart of Paris. Thirty-five minutes, no transfer, no RER, none of the trek everyone knows from Roissy with their suitcases and their staircases.

You collect your bags at Orly 4, you go downstairs, you board the metro, and you come back up at Châtelet. It is the first time arriving in Paris feels like arriving in a city rather than surviving a transfer.

Orly is also an airport built to human scale. After seven hours in the air, the difference between crossing a terminal and crossing an inland continent is measured in your legs.

The calendar, month by month

Frequencies follow the seasons. Here is what is scheduled.

Three flights a week in deep winter is plenty once you settle your dates early. A friendly tip: in January, book the outbound and the return in one sitting, and the rest falls into place.

The train to the far side of France, on the same ticket

How many travellers have bought a flight to Paris, then a separate train ticket, then spent the night before working out whether a three-hour buffer would survive a delay?

The train-plus-air option settles that arithmetic. One booking, one fare, one ticket. If the plane runs late, your rail connection stops being your problem and becomes theirs.

The connection happens at Massy station, fifteen minutes from Orly. Fifteen stations are on the list.

Saint-Pierre-des-Corps opens the Loire and its châteaux. Champagne-Ardenne drops you twenty minutes from Reims. Lorraine TGV serves Metz and Nancy. A good half of France becomes reachable without ever buying another seat or sprinting across a Paris station with two suitcases.

The stopover can stretch to twenty-four hours, which leaves time to breathe, to sleep a night, or to see a slice of Paris in between.

One simple thing to know: the rail segment is second class for everyone, even when you have chosen the Premium cabin in the air. On a TGV, second class is comfortable and you arrive fresh. Worth knowing before you go.

And beyond Paris, on the same booking

Here is the part few people know. Orly is a hub, and the single ticket reaches well past the TGV.

Corsica first. A codeshare agreement with Air Corsica opens Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi and Figari. Montreal to a Corsican beach without ever buying another seat is new for a traveller from here. If the island appeals, our Corsica page covers what waits between the Piana calanques and the shepherds’ huts of the Niolu.

Italy and Sardinia next. Turin, Genoa, Verona, Ancona on the Adriatic, then Alghero and Olbia in Sardinia. Olbia is the gateway to the Costa Smeralda. Alghero is Catalan Sardinia, where a dialect from Barcelona is still spoken.

Two French cities the plane serves better than the train. Tarbes-Lourdes, for the Pyrenees and for the pilgrimages, and Rodez, in the heart of the Aveyron. Algiers rounds out the list.

And the long-haul network, which is the real surprise. From Orly the same carrier runs to Réunion and to Papeete, with the Polynesian airports connecting beyond. A Quebecer can therefore reach Bora Bora or Rangiroa by way of Paris, on a single booking. Two destinations join on 19 December 2026: Malé in the Maldives and Colombo in Sri Lanka.

The network also touches Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami, with baggage checked through. For anyone dreaming of a round-the-world trip in stages rather than a return flight, there is room to play.

Two cabins, and what really separates them

The aircraft is an Airbus A350, the same across the whole fleet. Four A350-900s and two A350-1000s, all recent, with the quiet cabin and the renewed air that implies.

In Economy Blue the seat is 41.5 cm wide and the pitch reaches 81.5 cm, which sits above what you usually find with a low-cost carrier. Touchscreen, free entertainment, power outlet and USB port at every seat.

In Premium Blue the seat widens to 48 cm and the pitch to 92 cm, with a 125-degree recline, a footrest and a larger screen. Thirty-five seats on the A350-900, forty on the A350-1000. The cabin stays small, which is precisely the point.

Baggage, and the small calculation worth doing

One cabin bag and one personal item come with every fare, for a combined 12 kg. The cabin bag measures at most 55 by 35 by 25 cm, the personal item 40 by 30 by 15 cm. Large backpacks end up in the hold, which surprises hikers every single year.

In the hold, each piece takes 23 kg and 158 cm of combined dimensions. Car seats and strollers travel free whatever fare you choose.

Here is the small calculation worth doing. The fares come in several tiers, and checked baggage joins in from a certain level up. The entry fare travels light, in the literal sense, which is perfect for a few days away. For two weeks with the family, one tier up often works out better. That is the kind of comparison we run with you in two minutes on the phone.

Who this suits best

Every trip has its own rhythm, and this one has a rhythm all its own.

You know your dates, you know what you are packing, you pick your fare accordingly, and you land at Orly with a metro that drops you in central Paris. In that scenario, it is hard to do better.

If your dates are still moving, or you are set on leaving on a Tuesday in January, we will look at the other ways of reaching Paris together. We know them all, and we will tell you plainly which one serves you best that week.

This is exactly the kind of conversation an advisor is for.

One call, and we look at it together

Call 1 866 628-6241. You will reach someone who knows these flights and who has time for you. We look at your dates together, we compare honestly against the other ways of reaching Paris, we pick the right fare with the right baggage, and we stay a phone call away while you are there. That is the difference between booking alone in front of a screen and leaving with someone behind you.