Social Events

Two social events have been scheduled during the IAU Symposium 300 to which participants are welcome to attend: a dinner while cruising the Seine river and a guided visit of the Paris Observatory.

Conference Dinner: Boat Cruise on the Seine River

The conference dinner will take place on the evening of Thursday June 13th 2013 from 7:30 pm up to 1 am (19h30-01h00) animated by Claude Steiner (music and dance). It will be held on a boat cruising on the Seine. During the cruise, the participants will have the chance to enjoy in the best possible way the UNESCO world heritage site "Banks of the Seine". The name of the vessel is "Louisiane Belle".

Payment for accompanying persons

The conference dinner is included in the registration fees of the conference and is therefore open to all registered participants of IAUS300. Accompanying persons are welcomed to participate to this conference dinner. The deadline for accompanying to register and pay was May 25th.

Schedule of the Cruise:

Embarkation on the cruising boat will take place between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm (19h30-20h00) on the "Quai de Grenelle" (see information below). A cocktail will be served on the terrace of the "Louisiane Belle" before departure. Participants should be careful to be on time to board the Lousiane Belle before its departure. Participants who are late would unfortunatelly not be able to enjoy this event. A gastronomical French dinner will be served while the "Louisiane Belle" cruises the Seine. The boat will come back to its anchorage at the end of  the cruise, between 11 pm and  midnight. Musical entertainement will keep on until 1 am.

How to reach the "Port de Grenelle" :

The port of call of the Louisiane Belle is the "Port de Grenelle" located on the "Quai de Grenelle" (see map below). The port of call is located near the "Bir-Hakeim" station of the line 6 Paris metro line, as well as near the "Champ de Mars - Tour Eiffel" station of the RER C line. Both stations are about 300 meters away from the embarkation point. The "Grenelle" port of access map bellow details the walkway from these public transport station. You can download these maps in jpeg format or pdf format.

The trip from the conference venue should take about 45 minutes. From the conference venue, the participants can either walk to the "Saint-Michel" RER station (1 km - 15 minutes) or take either the 21, 38, or 85 bus at "Luxembourg" and stop in "Saint-Michel". At Saint Michel participants to the conference dinner should take the RER C line and stop at the station "Champ de Mars - Eiffel tower" and walk toward the embarkation point following the direction provided in the access map. An alternative transport route is to take the RER B line in "Luxembourg" change at "Denfert-Rochereau" to take the line 6, stop at the "Bir-Hakeim" station and finally walk to the port of call.

                        
View Larger Map                                                                                            Lousiane Belle port of call access map (pdf)

Guided visits of the Paris Observatory

Guided tours of the historical buildings of the Paris Observatory will be offered to registered participants of the IAUS 300.

The Paris Observatory  was built in 1671, following the design of Claude Perrault, one of the architect of Louis XIV (The Sun king) who also design part of  "Le Louvre". The Paris Observatory hosted world renown astronomers and astrophysicists such as the Cassini's, Delambre, Lalande, Arago, Le Verrier, ...

Paris Observatory History 

Tours will take place on Friday 14th, 2013 at 14h30 (2h30 pm) and 15h30 (3h30 pm). Participants who wish to follow this tour can register at the conference registration desk on Monday June 10th, at the start of the IAUS300.

The address of the Paris Observatory is: 77 Avenue Denfert Rochereau, Paris, at walking distance from the venue.