Super 612...or should it be amazing or incredible instead.

I love this car.

A few basics to set up the story:

1) I personally and we as a family love the French Riviera and will use any excuse to head south.
2) The 612 OTO is my daily driver and I have driven just over 60k kms in her since November 2021.
3) We travel as a family of 3, with the better half and our 16 month old son sometimes taking TGV while I enjoy the drive from Paris south.

We had made a short trip to Antibes in late November and watching our son run around unfettered in 15-20 degC sunshine rather than gray, wet Paris was a revelation that demanded we plan another trip south soon. So, we slotted in another week in Mid-December and planned to be back in Paris for Christmas and then maybe the renovation project for New Years.

Well, the weather was so nice and we were enjoying ourselves so much, we stayed another two weeks and just got back to Paris yesterday. Which means we did all the Christmas shopping in Antibes/Cannes and ended the trip with far more stuff than we started.

The 612 can carry a lot more luggage than you would ever imagine if you take some time to think about loading the trunk effectively.

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And the 2 car seats are missing from the photo.

We put 3000 kms on the car this trip and she was flawless. Strutting her stuff in Monaco, driving the twisties near EZE, hitting the lower Route Napoleon and making almost daily runs to Cannes, which during xmas is quite a nice place to be.

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Now, after 3 weeks of running free, our 16 month old was not get sit in the car for the 9 hrs back to Paris without some major complaints, so we split the trip with a stop in Beaune which is 5.5 hrs from Antibes and we stopped every 90 minutes along the way. Beaune is a great stop if you love wine and classic French cuisine. We stayed at the Hotel Le Cep, which I highly recommend (and they secure parking on site). The next day, we drove from Beaune to the renovation project and route from Beaune to Bourges takes the D973, D978, and D976 and I think it is best 220 km of driving in France outside of the Alps. Good road surfaces, sweeping curves and elevation changes, beautiful scenery, and lots of vineyards to peruse if you so choose.

We stopped after 90 minutes in a small town, at around 13:00 on Sunday (New Years eve) to let our son run around a little bit. Oddly enough this is a one bar town and it was open - we had the most enjoyable conversation with the owner and a few of the patrons. You never see this side of life in rural France unless you are driving and you stop. While trains and planes have their uses you miss so much richness of life present along the route.

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Ended the day with a Comte soufflé at the renovation project...

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What a trip to end 2023 and begin 2024.

Bill

 

I use the Cybex Pallas B2, a seat that has isofix or seatbelt attachment.

The seatbelt holds the seat, the bolster holds the child and has its own belt and buckle.

i was worried about Adam accepting the bolster but he has done 10k km with it and he sleeps very well in the seat.
The other critical advantage of this seat is the base has tapered sides so it sits properly in the back seats.

I use the seat in the right front when it’s just Adam and I and the rear right when it’s 3 or 4 of us.

My OTO had the OFFP option to disable the front airbag.

I never had any luck getting the isofix to engage either.

Bill



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