Trains and planes offer summer help

THE SNCF is to put on more trains and offer a range of extra services to passengers to help them cope with the peak summer travel period.

Some 20 million people are expected to travel by TGV this summer - up significantly on last year because fewer people are taking overseas holidays.

The rail operator has added an extra 415 TGVs to the timetable for the first two weekends of the summer getaway - this week and next.

Throughout the summer, capacity on the TGV network is expected to be up 8.5% on average.

Some 800 trains - about a fifth of the total number of TGVs running - will include family carriages with activities to keep children entertained.

Grandparents who buy a ticket with their Carte Senior can travel with two grandchildren aged under 13 at no extra charge throughout July and August.

The SNCF is also offering a personal guide service for travellers changing trains in Paris who want help getting from one station to the next. The accompanied transfer costs €22 plus the price of metro tickets.

Another service allows you to be picked up at your home by car, driven to the station and shown directly to your seat on the train. Prices start at €48 in Paris and €32 elsewhere.

There is also a paid-for service that will take care of your luggage on arrival and deliver it to your destination at a pre-arranged time.

Aéroports de Paris, which runs Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports, is expecting 16 million passengers in July and August, including almost a million on the first weekend.

It is offering massages, fish pedicures, reclining chairs and children's play areas including sandpits. Families with children will also have their own queues at security.