Enjoy the sights by train (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Summer seems far away, but it will be over before we know it.

Perhaps you are planning exciting excursions and looking forward to sunnier and warmer days.

And if you’re a French or German critic, you might want to make the most of a freebie program running this summer.

The governments in France and Germany are handing out 60,000 free train tickets to people under 27 this summer.

It was published on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty – a treaty of friendship between France and Germany.

The idea is that it will encourage travel and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

If you’ve enjoyed interrailing before, this could be the perfect opportunity to get back to traveling by train – all without spending a dime. The program offers one-way routes – similar to Interrail passes – and travelers can also use their tickets to travel within countries.

Transport Ministers Clément Beaune and Volker Wissing are behind the new initiative and further details on how to buy these tickets will be announced in due course.

This is not the only exciting European train news lately.

It was announced last week that a new ‘wine train’ is set to depart, taking passengers directly from London to Bordeaux in just a few hours.

Everyone on board.