Paris to Milan

Fly: a bit over 1.5 hours plus arriving at the airport 2 hours before the flight, plus however long it takes you to get to and from the city at each end.
Train: A bit under 7 hours on a direct train city center to city center.

Thanks! Just starting to figure it out…

Judy!

I worried about this a lot for my Italy trip last Fall. I wound up not stopping in Paris just transited thru there to Milan on the flight from Seattle. In retrospect I wished I had gone with staying in Paris a few days and taking one of the fast trains.

There are 2 a day leaving from Gare du Lyon, one run by the Italian train line and one run by the French rail line.

Here is the link to the info from the extensive train website, The Man in Seat 61.

https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Paris.htm#Paris-Milan

There are more than 2 trains/day: Trenitalia runs 2/day and SNCF runs another 2 or 3. The trip does take 7 hours, but the afternoon trains are still convenient: you leave Paris at about 2.30 PM after lunch, and get to Milan at a reasonable hour (~10 PM).
Now, with limited time, I would fly Orly-Linate.