As far as the flights go, I've been tooling around online to get an idea on fares.

CDG-DUB=100 dollars on Aer Lingus
DUB-BCN=200 on British Airways with a stop in London
BCN-NCE=104 on British Airways with a stop in London
NCE-FCO=210 on British Airways with a stop in London
FCO-LHR (to get to Heathrow for our flight back to LA)=240 on British Airways

So about 850 for the airfare. Seems expensive, but it looks like most of the LCC's fly out of weird airports that are out of the way.

Thanks for the input!