2–7 mai 2010
Oustau Calendal Conference Center
Fuseau horaire Europe/Paris

Travel Information

Arrangements for Departure on Friday

Yes, it is almost time to say good bye already. We hope you have had a pleasant stay and a successful conference and are suggesting the following facilities for your departure:
Two busses (approximate capacity 50 persons) will leave from Cassis, Rond-Point de la Gendarmerie, on:

  • Friday, 14:00 and
  • Friday, 16:00.

They will make a quick tour to the Cassis train station, from where trains are leaving (to Marseilles or Toulon) approximately two times per hour during weekdays. Then busses will head for the Marseilles Airports (MP2/MRS) and should arrive there approximately one hour after their respective departure.
If you need to take the 14:00 bus, please register at the conference secretariat!


Arrival at Marseilles Airports

Shuttle busses ("Navettes")  from Marseilles Airports (IATA codes MRS or MP2) to Marseilles St.Charles (central) train station are running from 5:30 to 23:30 (delayed for last flight arrival, if necessary) every 20 minutes, every day. Fare for one way is 8.50 EUR as of December 2009. Tickets for these buses can be purchased at a kiosk (silver and blue colour) by the taxi rank, which is situated between Halls 1/2 (most international arrivals/departures) and Hall3 (mainly domestic flights). The kiosk is not far from a long moving ramp leading up to hall 3, prominently visible in the aiport building plan below.

Based on arrival statistics for May 2nd 2010, we can offer two dedicated RICH2010  Marseille Airport - Cassis  buses for RICH2010 conference participants

  • at 16:00 and
  • at 19:00.

These buses, operated by the company NAP Tourisme will leave from outside the MRS international terminal halls 1/2 (and NOT outside the MP2 low cost flights terminal, which is two hundred metres to the west).

We suggest that participants following arrival meet our airport reception team at the "Salle Panoramique" which will be open from 12.00 in international Hall 1/2 (see airport building plan below). This terminal is 5' footwalk from MP2 low cost flight terminal to the west of hall 1) Fully registered participants (payment received and confirmed) will be able to receive their conference material there, if they wish. The way to the "Salle Panoramique" will be labelled and the airport information desk can give directions. In addition there are several cafes and restaurants at the airport in the international hall 1/2. The RICH2010 airport reception team will crosscheck a list of arrivals and try to fetch participants from the gate where possible and accompany them to the buses.

The RICH2010 workshop secretariat, which will be based in Cassis on Sunday May 2, will try to help in the case of problems. The sceratariat hotline us +33 6 72 69 28 80. Inside France to inside France: dial 06 72 69 28 80.

Airport map to Salle Panoramique

Arrival at Marseilles St. Charles train station (for those not using the dedicated RICH2010 buses at 16.00 and 19.00)

On Sunday, March 2nd, trains will leave approximately once per hour from the central station in Marseilles to Cassis:

Marseille St. Charles 6:33 7:33 8:33 11:03 12:23 13:37 14:33 15:03 16:04
Cassis 6:59 7:59 8:59 11:33 12:53 14:03 14:59 15:30 16:30
Marseille St. Charles 16:29 17:03 18:03 19:38 20:03 20:33 21:03 21:37 23:03
Cassis 16:59 17:29 18:29 20:05 20:27 21:00 21:30 22:04 23:30

Complete timetable: available from SNCF.

The navette bus from the airport arrives at the west end of the station. It is necessary to pass right through the station concourse (past the various shops, McDonalds etc) to the eastern end where TER tickets can be bought from machines. Participants arriving by train to Marseille St Charles station have less distance to walk to the TER train platforms (see below) and the ticket machines. Most machines are credit card only but a few take cash. Also there should be a ticket counter open, depending on arrival time. The one way ticket price is 5.20 Euros. Departures of the TER to Cassis (direction Toulon, intermediate stops in order include:  Marseille Blancarde, (with occasionally also La Pomme, St Marcel, La Penne), then Aubagne, Cassis, La Ciotat, St Cyr-Les Lecques-La Cadiere, Bandol, Ollioules, La Seyne..) are usually from platforms 3 or 5 at the extreme east end of the station, and are shorter platforms (by about 200m) than those of the TGV trains which are generally designated by letters rather than numbers.

People arriving at Marseille airport late in the evening (after around 22h30), will miss the last TER train from Marseille St Charles station to Cassis station. - Taxis from the airport to Cassis are probably the best option. The night rate for such a taxi is expensive however, around 135 Euros so we suggest taxi sharing -we have endeavoured to put people arriving late in touch with one another to facilitate this.

Arrival at Cassis train station

Cassis station is around 3 km from the town of Cassis.
For local transport inside Cassis or starting from Cassis to external destinations, you may use the local taxi company. Detailed information is available at http://taxiscassis.free.fr.

Switchboard phone number: 04.42.01.78.96

Direct lines to taxi drivers:

#1 Michel 06.07.54.59.10
#2 Denis 06.11.94.24.11
#3 Jean-François 06.85.67.90.58
#4 Max 06.08.21.43.71
#5 Alexandre 06.08.67.25.92
#6 Philippe 06.07.56.07.82
#7 Pascal 06.24.52.60.78
#8 Bruno (7 seats) 06.11.84.33.91
#9 Hassan 06.07.90.40.66
#10 Melchior 06.08.47.86.25

For calls from outside France replace the initial 0 with the country code (+33), for example 0033.4.42.01.78.96 for the central switchboard for calls from most european countries.

Taxi night fares

For your information and without engagement from our side, we have requested an estimation of individual taxi fares as of April 2010, according to the official "night" rate (standard rate is slightly less):

Marseilles Airports (Marignane) — Cassis 135 EUR
St. Charles (Marseilles main train station) — Cassis 70–75 EUR
Cassis train station — town center 20–30 EUR

Finding your hotel in Cassis

Please refer to the Accomodation section in the left bar menu.


The following paragraphs are taken (slightly modified and updated) from Bulletin #2, available at rich2010.in2p3.fr:

Travel to and from Cassis

Cassis is a small port town around 12 km east of Marseille. The region is well served with rail and autoroute connections. Three international airports are located in the region:

  • Marseille-Marignane (around 50 km), IATA codes MRS or MP2 (refer to details above)
  • Toulon-Hyères-St. Tropez (around 60 km), IATA codes TLN
  • Nice-Côte-d’Azur (around 150 km), IATA code NCE

all with car rental facilities. Autoroutes link these airports to Cassis, and regular shuttle buses (“navettes”) run between the airports and the nearest main line railway stations. Nizza's airport is linked to Nice-Ville train station (fare: 4 Euros one way as of December 2009), from where TGVs (Trains de Grande Vitesse – high speed trains) run to Toulon, where it is necessary to change to a TER in the direction of Marseille, getting off at Cassis (around a 40 minute journey from Toulon to Cassis).
Collective transport between the most requested arrival points and Cassis will be provided on Sunday May 2 afternoon and Friday May 7 afternoon.
To establish the optimum time for this, applicants are requested to indicate arrival and departure information via the conference web pages (INDICO). Further travel information will be included in the final conference bulletin and will be regularly updated on this page.

Car parking at the Conference Centre

Please note that, although there are several metered car parks in Cassis, with one near the port, car parking and car access are difficult in the narrow streets of Cassis port. Conference attendees staying at hotels in Cassis will not generally need a car to get to the conference centre as distances are short. We will endeavour to secure additional car parking at the limited conference centre car park, and priority will be given to companies exhibiting at the conference. Participants wishing to use the conference centre car park need to make a request via RICH2010@cppm.in2p3.fr, indicating the driver(s) name(s) and the days requested and (when known) car registration.


DH 26-6-2010