Local information

Participants

Venue

This year SIROCCO will be held in Porquerolles, France. Porquerolles is a beautiful island on the Mediterranean Sea, in the South of France. It is close to Marseille and Nice. The conference venue is the IGESA resort facility, situated on the Rue de la Douane, very near the main port of Porquerolles island. See below for a map. SIROCCO 2017 will provide transportation from Marseille and Nice to Porquerolles and back. See below for travel information.

Accommodation will be provided for all participants of SIROCCO from 19/06 to 22/06 at the conference venue. The cost is included in the registration fees. There is no need to reserve a hotel.

There is an option to stay an extra night at the conference venue by paying an additional fee of around 70 euros (including dinner and breakfast).

Social program

On Monday evening (19 June), there will be a welcome reception. On Wednesday (21 June), there will be an excursion followed by a banquet.

Map

Travel information

Porquerolles island is at a 15-minute ferry ride from the port of La Tour Fondue, the nearest port on the provincial coast. The nearest town is called HYERES. The bigger towns in the region are Marseille and Nice; both have international airports. Transportation from Marseille and Nice to the conference venue and back will be provided by SIROCCO. Please note that reaching Porquerolles by public transport is not easy and may require several changes. So, it is strongly recommended to use the transportation provided by SIROCCO. If you plan to arrive at another time, please contact us so that we can suggest alternate means of transportation. Private or rental cars are not allowed on the Porquerolles island.

Transportation (organized by SIROCCO)

For the trip to the conference venue, there will be the following buses:

  • From Marseille train station (Marseille-Saint-Charles), departure at 15:00 on June 19th.
  • From Nice airport (Nice-Côte d’Azur), departure at 15:00 on June 19th.

Both buses will connect to a boat leaving 17:25 from the port of Tour Fondue to Porquerolles.

For the return trip from the conference venue, there will be the following buses:

  • To Marseille train station (Marseille-Saint-Charles), arrival at 18:30 on June 22nd. The bus to Marseille will depart from Porquerolles in the evening of June 22nd.
  • To Nice airport (Nice-Côte d’Azur), arrival at 12:00 on June 23rd. The bus to Nice will depart in the morning of June 23rd.

Note that these are only the scheduled times; due to traffic, the return buses may arrive late, though the delay shouldn't be more than one hour in the worst case. Please take this into account when booking your flights or train tickets. Both buses would pass through Hyères train station (the closest train station from the conference venue) so you can take any of the buses if you plan to take a train afterwards.

Please state which bus you wish to take (if any) in the registration form. Both the bus and the boat ride to/from Porquerolles is included in the registration fee.

Traveling on your own

BY FLIGHT: The town that is closest to the conference venue is HYERES. There is a small airport here, called Toulon-Hyeres airport (TLN) which has only a few flight connections. The bigger international airports in the region are Marseille-Provence Airport (MRS) and Nice-Cote d'Azur Airport (NCE).
From MARSEILLE airport, there is a regular shuttle bus (every 15 minutes) to go to the city center which takes 30 minutes and takes you to Marseille St. Charles train station, the main station in the middle of the town. From here, you can take a local train to HYERES train station.
From NICE airport, it is possible to walk to the train station of Nice Saint-Augustin and take a local train to HYERES train station. Alternately, you may take the shuttle bus to NICE city train station from where you can take a local train to HYERES train station.

BY TRAIN: From most cities in France it is possible to travel by train to HYERES train station. The faster trains do not stop at HYERES so you may have to change trains. Train schedule and information is available here: https://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/
From HYERES train station: A 15 minute taxi ride will take you to the port called "La Tour Fondue". Alternately there is bus number 67 that travels between the train station and the port. Please check the schedule as the bus does not run very frequently.

From the port of La Tour Fondue: There are regular boats taking 15 minutes to reach Porquerolles. Check schedules for boats here (Put correct date). An alternate (but much more expensive) option is the boat taxi ("Bateaux-Taxi") which can be reserved by phone to pick you up at any hour. More information is available here.

BY CAR: Note that cars are not allowed on the island of Porquerolles. You may drive up to the port of La Tour Fondue in Hyeres and leave your car in the paid parking space before taking the boat. It is strongly recommended to reserve your parking space in advance. More information is available here.

Contact information