Cross-Channel fares attract more.

PEAK season bookings for August on cross-Channel ferries have risen by 10%, because travellers heading for the Mediterranean can't believe how cheap it is to take a car across the Channel.

"People know a good deal when they see one," says Sarah Staughton, head of marketing at P&O Ferries.

"We've got fares from pounds 37 at off-peak times for families to take their cars across the Channel if they fancy a bit of sun in the south of France.

"They are taking care of costs by tailoring their own trips."

The fares are a huge reduction on the pounds 300-plus return tickets which were the norm on Dover-Calais runs a decade or so ago. Larger ships and sophisticated computer booking systems have crunched fares down remorselessly since then.

P&O Ferries has confirmed plans to spend pounds 285m on two of the largest ferries ever on the Dover-Calais crossing, which are due to enter service in 2010.

There's another incentive to head for France this summer: Rail Europe's special offers on first-class fares aboard high-speed TGV trains heading for the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts.

Travellers taking Eurostar returns from pounds 59 to Paris can then check first-class one-way fares on Corail Intercites services to destinations including Rouen and Orleans from pounds 12.

First-class seats on high speed TGVs start at pounds 20.50 for one-way journeys from Paris to cities such as Reims, Tours and Chalons en Champagne from pounds 20.50, while first-class fares to Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille and Aix en Provence start at pounds 25.

P&O Ferries (08716 646 464 and ww.poferries.com); French Travel Service (08448 48 8843 and www.F-T-S.co.uk); Rail Europe (0844 848 4070 and www.raileurope.co.uk)