kenmoore,

My guess is your plans are for June, 2013, not 2012.

I recommend you set up an alert on Kayak.com and they will they will watch the flights and send you an email. (Probably more than you want, but you will get alerts)

Defintely plan for Mid-week travel to Europe or Saturday.
Stay away from Friday, Sunday, and Monday. Those are the heavy business people days and are always packed.

Do not rule out Iceland Air or Air Lingus they can offer some great specials.

The other thing to consider if cost is a major factor. Fly into Gatwick in London or Brussels in Belgium and catch the train. Paris can be expensive to fly into.

There also small European airline called Flybe, that I have used that is wonderful. Take a look there and you may be able to fly in Dublin and catch Flybe to Bordeaux for example. Drink a little wine and then head to Paris on the train. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Bottom line there are a lot options, and do not rule out other cities. Mass transportation in Europe is too easy not to consider other destinations.

Have fun planning.