air vs train from Paris to Florence

A flight from Paris to Florence is usually better. The bad news is that none of the budget airlines fly from Paris to Florence. Air France will fly you there from Paris-CDG directly to Florence for $754. Not good. The best budget flights would be from Paris-CDG to Bologna or Paris-Orly to Pisa. From either of these two cities you would have to get to the nearest train station for a 1.5hr journey to Florence. On that front, Pisa has the edge as they have a train station right in the airport. The best train route will take you just under 9 hours with one change in Torino.

IMO, flying from Paris to Pisa on easyJet would be better than flying to Bologna. There are a few direct trains from the Pisa airport to Florence that make the trip in just under an hour. If you have to connect at Pisa Centrale, the trip will take about an hour and a half. Currently there is no direct night train service between Paris and Florence. You could take the Paris-Venice night train as far as Milan and a high-speed EuroStar Italia train from Milan to Florence. If you want to know more about how to book those trains, just ask. When are you taking this trip?

Using skyscanner.net I found a Vueling, non-stop flight from ORY to FLR for US$138. Of course that doesn't include any of the potential extra charges but that might be something to consider. I would go directly to the airline site to purchase.
I don't know when you'll be in Europe so I was using May, 2012.

According to the Vueling site, the airline will begin direct service between Paris Orly and Florence the last week of March. The fare can be as low as €49.99. However, flights will not operate every day of the week.

Wow thanks everyone, this is great all suggestions are helpfull and very much appreciated
Brian