egnxema,
You were flying to one of the few places where the Ryanairport is physically closer to the city centre.
AFAIK, the only other one is Rome CIA (for cities where there is more than one airport).
The route from STN to CIA is also the only one
AFAIK where Fr compete head to head with Easy. The only other UK>Europe route they go head to head on is Murcia from EMA (with baby). Obviously they have a fair amount of competition with EI & others to DUB. As with all of the above, someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Which airport is more convenient will depend on method of transport and final start point / destination at each end. BVA is irrelevant from SW England, as Ryanair don't even fly there. Eurostar beats both hands down to central Paris.