Just back from a fantastic road trip to Annecy and the Route Napoleon down to Grasse. This was our first continental trip since the Pyrenees pre-Covid, and I was reminded just what an effortless continental tourer the Panamera is (apart from one challenge exiting an underground car-park in Grenoble). No queues for the Shuttle going out, and whilst switching display and lights to LHD mode while waiting to board, one change I noticed since our last trip is that the digital speedometer now switches to km/h along with changes for the rest of the display, whereas previously it oddly remained in mph. Presumably remediated as part of a software update in the meantime.
We ended up driving the Route Napoleon in both directions, and diverting off to the very hot Gorges du Verdon (astonishing rocky scenery, but slow and wiggly), and whilst there are great views of the Mediterranean as you drop southwards into Grasse, I preferred it south to north as the various Napoleon monuments are more visible on the ‘right’ side of the road, and great views of the mountains ahead. The route south of Digne and around Castellane is the most interesting, all of it well-engineered with a few zig-zags, if not as exciting as the Grimsel/Furka pass! The private Citroën museum at Castellane is well worth a visit - all low mileage originals.
We had to alter our plans to get back early for a family funeral in Hampshire, involving an 11 hour schlepp as far as Reims, but the Panamera was utterly peerless and unstressed all the way. Thankfully we made it back to the UK just before the Shuttle stopped and passengers were emptied out into the service tunnel for 5 hours - not nice.
Good to be on the road again. ??
We ended up driving the Route Napoleon in both directions, and diverting off to the very hot Gorges du Verdon (astonishing rocky scenery, but slow and wiggly), and whilst there are great views of the Mediterranean as you drop southwards into Grasse, I preferred it south to north as the various Napoleon monuments are more visible on the ‘right’ side of the road, and great views of the mountains ahead. The route south of Digne and around Castellane is the most interesting, all of it well-engineered with a few zig-zags, if not as exciting as the Grimsel/Furka pass! The private Citroën museum at Castellane is well worth a visit - all low mileage originals.
We had to alter our plans to get back early for a family funeral in Hampshire, involving an 11 hour schlepp as far as Reims, but the Panamera was utterly peerless and unstressed all the way. Thankfully we made it back to the UK just before the Shuttle stopped and passengers were emptied out into the service tunnel for 5 hours - not nice.
Good to be on the road again. ??
