Long car journey tips for 12 month old

[Hazelwood1]

We are driving to the south of France to stay with my French in laws but have only ever flown there in the past. I'm not so worried about my 3 year old as he can listen to stories etc in the car but I've no clue what to do with our 12 month old. Any tips?

He is in a rear facing car seat, leaning backwards and our car isn't big enough for me to sit between the seats in the back.

I'm dreading it...!

I'd do as much of the journey during overbought sleep times as possible

We do this fairly often. We try to do max 5 hours driving per day for starters. 3 year old is indeed no trouble. 12-24 months is the hardest age I think. I prepare a bag of toys and random objects (remote controls, fiddly things ) and basically hand one over when he's grumpy. Apart from that we hope for a nice long nap! And no milk in the morning as they're both car sick.

Thank you - good to know I'm not missing some magic thing and that it is just a case of basket of toys and naps!