It's very hard to get information about Centre International de Recontres Mathématiques (aka CIRM) on the internet; therefore, with the help of my colleagues at the recent Workshop on Tensor Decompositions and Applications, I've decided to post this unofficial guide to aid future visitors.
CIRM is located at the Faculté des Sciences de Luminy, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France. The Luminy campus is located on the south side of Marseille; the Marseille-Provence airport is to the north. Here's a regional map that shows Luminy. Because this link is hard to find on the CIRM web site, here are the official directions to CIRM.
In general, the architecture on campus is very ugly and in the form of gray 1970s-style high-rises. The CIRM buildings are much nicer by comparison.
The Marseille-Provence airport is the closest (approximately 45 minute cab ride to CIRM). It is a very nice and easy to navigate airport. Once I arrived, I had no problem finding an ATM to get some euros.
I took cabs to and from the airport. It cost about 88 euros for 4 people to get from the airport to the campus and 66 euros for 2 people to go the other way. The taxi on the return trip was excellent because it was exactly on time for a 4:30 am pick-up. I don't know the name of the company, but the phone number is 04 91 05 80 80 (dial 011-33-4-91-05-80-80 from the USA). The trip time is about 45-60 minutes, depending on traffic.
If you come by bus, you will get off of the last stop of Jet Bus Line 21. Walk down and past the gate and then straight up the main road between tall buildings for at least 5 minutes. CIRM is not really visable from the road. You will see instead a driveway and a sign. Walk up this road and you will find the salmon-covered buildings that comprise CIRM. This map shows the way to walk from the bus stop.
The campus is fairly isolated. However, getting to downtown is easy via Jet Bus Line 21, which terminates the line at Luminy. The other end of this bus line is the downtown (i.e., near the port) of Marseille. It takes about 45 minutes to get downtown (plus about 10 minutes to walk from CIRM to the bus stop).
The cost of the bus is 1.60 euros. Contrary to what the CIRM web site says, drivers do make change for, say, a 2 euro coin.
It's worth pointing out that CIRM is not a hotel. You cannot check in before they open on Sunday afternoon (time varies - check with your organizers), and you have to be out by 10am on Saturday. You cannot stay over Saturday night. Moreover, services are very limited (as described below).
As far as I can tell, none of the staff speak English. They try to be helpful but are somehow insolent at the same time. You'll see for yourself when you visit. The biggest problem is finding the staff. Each person can only do his or her own duties, and you're pretty much stuck otherwise. For example, I was never successful in securing an extra towel despite repeated attempts (see below). Also, there are lots of vacations in France, and sometimes the whole facility shuts down. This happened to me when I tried to call for two weeks before my visit to ask about the accommodations. There was no answer because everyone was on vacation.
There is no air conditioning anywhere in the facility - including your room, the eating area, the meeting area, and even the computer room. When I was there, the temperature is my room was consistently between 75-85 F, and the humidity was about 40-60%. I quickly got used to the heat, but be warned that everyone gets to be pretty "ripe".
The rooms are very simple. I had a single bed, a dresser, a desk, a closet. Each room has its own bathroom with a toilet, a sink, and either a very small shower or a tub. Some rooms have two single beds or a double bed. There is no phone, no tv, no radio, no internet. As noted above, there is no air conditioning. There is a window and shutters (but no screen) that opens to the outside. I had a lovely view out my window, but I also got a lot of mosquito bites.
As for linens, I got one bath towel, one hand towel, one bath mat. No wash cloth. The towels were not changed all week, and I was unsuccessful in attempts to get an extra towel. Once I discovered the laundry facilities (see below), I just washed the towels myself.
The sheets are not changed either, but I did get fresh sheets mid-week in a box on the wall. I'm not sure how one gets those onto the bed unless you put them on youself. The pillows are roll pillows - not ordinary pillows. There was a regular pillow in a dresser drawer that I used instead. I heard from one person that is sharing a room that there was only one ordinary pillow for two people.
The walls seemed pretty thin because I could often hear conversations in the hallway, so you may also want to bring ear plugs.
The room appears to be cleaned each day during breakfast. I could tell because my bed was made. If you are still asleep when the cleaning staff comes, they will leave and *not* come back.
If the main buildings are full, people are lodged in the annex. Annex guest rooms each have a side-hinged inwards-opening window with an exterior roll-down steel security shutter, and no screen, blinds, or curtains. This includes rooms on the ground floor. So, for those on the ground floor of the annex who desire both privacy and security, the opportunities for fresh air at night are somewhat limited. (Contributed by Jim Pekar)
You must use your key to lock the door from the inside. I tell you this for two reasons. First, I failed to lock my door the first night because I naively assumed it somehow locked automatically like an American hotel door. Second, this way of locking the door is a safety hazard. After you lock the door, be sure to leave the key in the lock in case you need to evacuate in the middle of the night. If you are bringing children, be sure to either stay with them in the room or teach them how to unlock the door from the inside.
On the plus side, there are free laundry facilities. A washer, dryer, ironing board, iron, and drying rack on the 2nd floor (which is really the 3rd floor, but apparently the ground floor isn't numbered in France). Free soap is also provided.
You get 3 very nice meals each day. Each morning, a cold breakfast is served. You do have the option of boiling your own egg, but do realize the egg is *raw* unless you cook it. The breakfast consisted of juice, coffee or tea, croissants, baguette, fruit (orange, apple or peach), yogurt, and cereal. It runs from 7:30am-9:00am, although the staff tended to start putting things away by 8:45am.
You must be on time for lunch and dinner or the staff get really irritated. Service is fast and efficient and seems pretty annoyed when you linger beyond the time for the meal.
Considering the price and the fact that this is an institution, I found the meals to be quite good. You must plan to be around on Thursday night for the bouillabaisse which is somewhat of an institution at CIRM. Truth be told, the fish was only okay, but the broth was excellent so fill up on that. Except for Thursday night, no wine is provided, but it is available for purchase. You may be surprised (as I was) that the red wine is chilled!
Picnic lunches are available is you ask the night before. This is a great alternative if you plan to hike in the afternoon. And the lunches are very substantial.
There are no phones except for two pay phones in the lobby. These phones do not accept change. You need to have either a special European phone card or credit card that has a chip on it (which U.S. credit cards don't have) *or* a phone card that has a toll free (0800) number. On the plus side, these phones do accept incoming calls. The number for the phone on the right is (from the USA): 011-33-4-91-82-62-35. I eventually discovered that you can also purchase a European phone card from the vending machine (see below), but I don't know what the rate is.
As mentioned above, the Luminy campus is very isolated. CIRM itself has only vending machines. One is a *free* coffee and tea vending machine that is very nice. The other is a pay vending machine that dispenses some candy, drinks, and beer. It also has some toiletries (soap, shampoo, razor) and sells a European phone card.
There is a very small store in the main building on campus that sells cigarettes, magazines, water and fruit juice, cookies and candy. No fresh fruit, though.
UNIX workstations are available. No PCs or MACs are available. I don't know what applications are provided beyond Mozilla, which was the only one I used (to access web mail). There is also a printer. You cannot log on until the conference chairs provide a password. In my case, this didn't happen until Monday morning.
Wireless and wired connections are also available. You will need instructions from the conference chairs on using the wireless. Apparently the signal was not that good. The web site says that there is supposed to be wireless in the bedrooms, but no one could get a good signal. The best signal was in the computer room with the workstations.
You can also hook up directly to ethernet in the computer room. No password is required.
Free postcards were available in the lobby. The library staff will mail them (or other mail) for you. Just take it to them, they will go their meter and calculate the price, and then you pay.
To me, the best part of CIRM was that you could walk out the back door and hike to the sea (either directly to the beach or to an overlook). You'll definitely want to come prepared. Bring appropriate shoes (tennis shoes are fine, but they will get dusty) as well as a bathing suit and a towel (you cannot get extra towels from the staff). It's a 25-25 minute hike to the overlook, and a 45-60 minute hike to the sea. The trail can at times be difficult to follow because it's not marked, there are many alternate trails, and crosses a small road several times. It's also very steep in places if you go to the sea (depending on what trail you take). The beach itself is actually several very small beaches, and the one you get to depends on which trail you take. There is no sand - only rocks. It's good to have sandals or beach shoes to walk up to the edge of the water. The water is very nice, with an interesting mixture of warm spots and cool spots. It gets very deep very fast, and many people enjoyed diving of the rock formations.
The Hotel Montgrand in Marseille, recommended by the CIRM, is a two-star hotel. It is in a great location, it is a good value, the staff are courteous, the rooms are air-conditioned and fairly clean, but two stars means (in this case): No elevator, no room service, no closet or drawers. Perhaps okay for those on their own, but if you are traveling with spouse or children you may be more comfortable in a three- or four- star hotel. (Contributed by Jim Pekar)
