Social events

Welcome Cocktail

A welcome cocktail will be offered to the participants on Sunday evening (06 Jul 2014) at Espaces Vanel.

Conference Dinner

The conference dinner will take place on Thursday night (10 Jul 2014), at Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques.

Wednesday Tour

A visit of the cathedral of Albi and of a Gaillac winery will be organized on Wednesday afternoon (09 Jul 2014). The episcopal city of Albi and its cathedral was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Young Astronomers Mixer

We will organize a Young Astronomers Mixer on Wednesday night (9 Jul 2014), after the excursion to Albi. It will take place in a tapas bar, La Tantina de Burgos, 27 avenue de la Garonnette. As usual, age itself is an irrelevant parameter to determine whether you are young or not, so everyone is welcome! Just to have a rough idea of the number of participants, we kindly ask you to fill the doodle at the following link:
http://doodle.com/54yhfmps5b2az8w4
You can always change your mind afterwards!

Saturday - Visit to the Pic du Midi (optional, limited to 40 participants)

Some of you rightfully mentioned that it would be a shame to have people come to Toulouse and not organize a visit to the Pic du Midi! So we planned a trip from Toulouse to the Pic on Saturday July 12th for those who wish. The number of participants has to be limited to 40 because only a small number of visitors are allowed in the domes, and the visit of the telescopes can occur only in the morning. For this reason, we ask you to pre-register to the visit by sending a mail to corot3-kasc7@sciencesconf.org with the object pic-du-midi-preregistration. Registration will be granted on a first-come-first-serve basis until the maximum number of participants is reached, so register quickly! Payment (around 60 euros depending on the number of participants) will be done on site the first day of the conference. Please note that we can guarantee that the trip will take place only if the number of participants is above 25.

The trip will be organized as follows (of course this is preliminary and the details might change): The bus will leave early morning from Toulouse (probably between 6:00 and 6:30 AM) to reach la Mongie shortly before 9AM. The idea is to catch the first cable ride to the top of the Pic du Midi at 9AM. The group will then split in two subgroups of maximum 20 people, which will successively visit the Bernard-Lyot Telescope with a guide from the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées. For lunch, the participants can either bring their own food or buy sandwiches at the top of the Pic. There is also a restaurant for those who wish to have a more substantial meal. The participants will then be able to visit the touristic part of the Pic (the panoramic terraces and the museum, see the website for more details) and hopefully enjoy the breathtaking view (if the weather allows it). We plan to take the cable back to la Mongie between 3 and 4PM. The bus should then take us back to Toulouse between 6:30 and 7PM.

The cost of the trip will of course depend on the number of participants but it should be around 60 euros, including the transport to and from la Mongie, and the cable from la Mongie to the top of the Pic and back (lunch is not included). A word of caution, let us state the obvious and insist that good weather is of course not guaranteed! If the weather is cloudy, we lose the view but can still enjoy the visit of the site and the telescopes. Also, in the rare occasions of a strong wind, the cable has to be shut down. In this unfortunate case, we wouldn't be able to reach the top of the Pic, but we could then plan a walk in the mountains. We will fill you in during the week of the conference as soon as we have reliable weather forecast.