The decrypting diversity summit will bring you to the city of Montpellier. Montpellier lies in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. The ca. 300 000 inhabitants are called Montpelliérains. It has an amazing historical city center (called Écusson), is ca. 15km from the sea in the south and has some nice mountains (called Cevennes) in the north. In June the weather is hot and dry - so bring your swimming suit and light clothes. However, the big conference room has air condition, so best bring some long-sleeves as well.
By Christian Ferrer - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
By User:Palthrow - Taken by User:Palthrow during his stay in Montpellier. All rights released., Public Domain, Link
The Venue
The decrypting diversity summit will be held at the LIRMM (Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics of Montpellier). The LIRMM is a is a joint research unit of University of Montpellier and the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research). It is located on the Saint-Priest Campus of the University of Montpellier. Its research activities fully position the LIRMM at the heart of information, communication and systems sciences and technologies. The work is carried out in three scientific research departments, themselves organised into research teams.
Travelling to Montpellier
By plane:
Montpellier's airport is called Aéroport Montpellier Méditerranée (MPL) and is situated in the south-east of Montpellier, ca. 10 km from the city center.
To reach the city center by public transport, you have to take a bus shuttle (called navette) to the tram station "Place de l'Europe" from which you can take tram line 1 to the city center. The schedule of the bus shuttle can be found here. More information on how to access the airport can be found here. It is a rather small airport, so it is not very likely you will get a good connection to it.
Alternative airports in the region are the Nîmes airport (FNI), Marseille airport (MRS), Lyon airport (LYS) and Paris airport (CDG). From those airports you can either book trains to Montpellier or various busses.
By train:
Montpellier has two main train stations: Montpellier Saint-Roch and Montpellier Sud de France. The Saint-Roch train station is pretty much in the city center, whereas the Sud de France train station lies ca. 10km outside of the city. More and more of the fast trains (called TGV) do not enter the city center anymore and only stop at the Sud de France train station. From there, you have to take a bus shuttle (called navette) to the traim station "Place de l'Europe" from which you can take tram line 1 to the city center. Overall, you can plan around 1h to reach a hotel in the city center from the southern train station.
By bus:
Montpellier is accessible by bus from many European cities (Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Liège, Florence, Milan, Rome, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Bucharest, etc.). It is serviced by Blablabus, Flixbus, Linebus (from Spain) and LIO (within the Hérault region).
How to get to the venue
LIRMM is situated in the North-West of Montpellier. The nearest tram stop is "Château d'Ô" which is about an 8 minute walk away and serviced by tram line 1 (direction Mosson/Odysseum), which conveniently passes via Saint-Roch and Place de la Comédie. LIRMM is also accessible by bus via lines 6 and 7 at the bus stop "Château D'Ô" (~8 min walk) and lines 23 and 26 at the bus stop "Occitanie" (~15 min walk). There is also an on-site car park and bike storage.
Montpellier public transport
Montpellier provides trams, busses and bikes. An interactive map of Montpellier's public transport system can be found at here. Tickets can be purchased via the TaM app.