Night train Venice to Paris

In all honesty, with the cheap flights available within Europe, why don't you fly? It will save time and probably will be the same or even cheaper price.

I was looking into doing the same thing earlier this year, but the more I looked, the less appealing it became. The noise, the bathrooms, the jostling (I have a bad back) made me decide against it.

Recent as in 2 1/2 months ago? We took that Thello train (but got on in Verona) and used a 6-person couchette. As it happens, our particular train had mechanical problems leaving us stranded for several hours in Switzerland. We got into Paris at about 4PM - seven hours late. To their credit, they did send free snacks around to keep people from rioting. But the only information we got regarding the delay came from the lowly employee distributing the snacks. Assuming this doesn't also happen to you, you should expect a fairly ordinary night train experience. Nothing else was especially nice or especially unpleasant. If you do use a 6-person couchette, however, you DON'T want to be the person on the bottom. It was almost ridiculously cramped and angled toward the wall (not flat). A 4-person couchette would not have this problem. Because we bought early, our fare was the 35euro "smart" fare. No flight could compete with that, especially when added costs for transport to/from the airports are factored in. But I wouldn't suggest anyone pay full fare for this experience. I would definitely fly before paying the full fare.

Ok, i'm convinced. Any thoughts on whether it's better to fly into Orly or CDG? I've been to Paris before, just not flying in from Venice. No idea yet where I'm staying, except to say near the city center. Also, any idea what the taxi fees are?

I've done Florence-Paris on night train a few times. Last time 20 years ago. From Venice wouldn't be any difference. It was a long trip (I think it was 14 hours from Florence) and I don't sleep well in couchettes because it's noisy. I wouldn't do it again in the era of cheap air travel with low cost airlines (and in fact I haven't done it since). I don't even think it would be cheaper than flying in most instances. You can fly to Paris in less than 1 1/2 hours for very reasonable fares nowadays. Never flown to ORY. There is an RER train that takes you from CDG to downtown for a very reasonable price. The choice of the Paris airport will be likely dictated by the airline you choose (and the price). Air France flies only to CDG from VCE. EasyJet flies to both CDG & ORY. Ryan Air flies from Venice Treviso TSF to Paris Beauvais (BVA). Ryanair is cheaper but both airports are farther from the two cities. Those 3 are the only airline choices from Venice (or Treviso).