rental car drop in Paris

From which direction will you be arriving?

If coming from the North drop at CDG airport.

That might make sense if you're actually coming from the north (Amiens, Lille) but, if you asked the question, you're probably coming from the northwest after having been to either Lower Normandy or western Upper Normandy. If such is the case, you'd pass by several excellent drop locations enroute to Roissy -- adding at least an hour and a half to the total evolution.

Similar logic can be applied to an Orly drop.

JHK's question needs to be answered before you can get any concrete answer.
Knowing the rough time of day, day of the week, and season would also help.

We plan to arrive in Paris on a Friday afternoon in May, coming from Burgundy. Is the drop off at Orly a good idea? Then train or bus into Paris. Thanks for your thoughts.
Denis

Orly. The only other options would be the train stations at Montparnasse or Gare de Lyon, but they're both pretty hard to hit and you'd be fighting afternoon traffic.

We dropped off our car at Orly on a Sunday in June coming up from Burgundy and it was a very easy drop off. There were 2 good gas stations, one right off the highway before you entered the airport and one right by the rental car drop off. The drop off for our company was in a parking structure right by the terminal. We took a taxi to near the Lux. Gardens for 32 euros, for 4 people which I thought was a good deal.

You might consider dropping the car at Dijon station and proceeding by nonstop TGV. Its 1 hr 40 min to Gare de Lyon. You should be able to snag 15 euro Prems fares if you buy early enough. From Orly, you're liable to spend 6 to 12 euro to get into Paris anyway, depending on the transport options you choose.

As other travelers have mentioned the airports will be your best option. They are outside of the Paris downtown traffic but are well connected to the city center with the RER. You can look up drop-off options with sites such as www.autoeurope.com.