Frequently Asked Questions

Arrival/Departure

Participants must arrive at IESC on Sunday afternoon and leave on Saturday morning. Information on transport logistics between Ajaccio airport and the Institute will be sent in due course, including for arrivals or departures outside the proposed schedule. After receiving this information, you can interact with the organizer during the last three days before your arrival in Corsica for adjustments or corrections.

Participants programmed on the bus organized by the school arriving in Ajaccio by boat or train are invited to take the bus n°8 to reach Ajaccio airport (get off the train at the station "Les Salines / I Salini"). Those wishing to go the IESC site by their own means are invited to wait after the arrival of the secretariat staff, scheduled with the shuttle around 19:00, to reach their lodging, unless these are planned at Residence "Roc e Mare".

Participants are kindly requested to vacate their room by 09:00 for reasons of cleaning logistics. The departures will be organized during the course of the school by gathering participants in a single shuttle service. However, in case of very early flights, the participants are invited either to take a taxi or to book a hotel in Ajaccio for the day before his departure, at his own expense.

What to do at Ajaccio airport in case of a long wait for your flight or the shuttle. For security reasons, there is no luggage storage, which requires you to wait in the lobby, where catering services are available (coffee, pastry, sandwich, ...). If your luggage are not too heavy, you can easily reach by walk the beach or the "Restaurant L'aero-club" (tel:04 95 10 08 93).

Lodging

Accommodation must be booked through the online registration process. It will be allocated according to the participants wishes and the availability, as best as possible accounting to constraints. You will be informed on the allocation of your housing on arrival.

School facilities

The rooms nearby the amphitheater are reserved for the participants to meet for discuss the problems given by the lecturers and/or making exercises, also the garden offers a peacefull location for group activities. One has to keep in mind that such moments provide with a good opportunity for participants to share their knowledge, even in a very informal way.

The following equipment will be available:

video projector for computer presentations
overhead projector
Blackboard, Whiteboard
internet access will be available at the whole conference site and rooms.

Scheduling of the scientific program

Courses are given daily from Monday to Friday in sessions of 90 minutes from 9:00 to 16:00, followed either by a 60 minutes seminar and three 30-minute presentations given by participants or a 90-minutes Hands on. Interruptions of 30 and 120 minutes (coffee breaks and lunches) will allow for exchanges and provide opportunities for speakers to develop their topics informally.

The last day, an informal discussion between participants and lecturers will close the school. We expect the participants to ask questions to the lecturers about the content of their lectures and the prospectives in their research fields. Everyone is invited to actively participate to this final scientific exchange meeting.

A moment of relaxation

On Monday evening, a welcome aperitif will allow us to savor regional specialties, while allowing participants to get to know each other better.
One afternoon, usually midweek, is meant for a relaxing moment. On this occasion, participants can visit the surroundings of the village, hike along the coast to visit the Genoese towers, or in the mountains, or simply enjoy the sandy beach on the institute's site. In addition, either a boat trip (the Calanques de Piana, Girolata, ...) or a mountain tour, as well as a visit to a scuba diving site, can be arranged.
An evening is planned for a banquet, either in the dining room of the institute, or in the garden, or in a restaurant of the village. The choice is made according to the meteorological conditions and the wishes of the participants.
The institute makes a high quality grand piano available to the participants. Hence, musicians are warmly invited to wear their musical instruments.

Weather Forecast

Cargèse, France, Wind and Waves, Waves, Chiuni beach.

IESC in brief

A presentation of the IESC and its staff : Slides.

The origin of the Institute was a non-profit organization in the 60s, created under the aegis of Prof. Maurice Levy. At that time, only few summer schools on theoretical physics were held in villa Menasina.

In 1975, thanks to public fundings, the Institute acquired new premises, which made possible to gradually extend the school running period and to broaden the scientific themes. Since 1996 the Institute is a CNRS unit linked to University of Corsica.

The activity has continued over the years with additional topics as science develops. Nowadays, the Institute welcomes throughout the year about thirty meetings in a very broad spectrum of scientific disciplines. The constant renovation effort and acquisition of new premises culminated in 2011 with the construction of a new building with high environmental quality that significantly increases the possibility of hosting on site.

IESC is internationally recognized for holding high level scientific events. Outstanding scientists, Nobel, Lasker or Fields laureates regularly organize or participate in meetings. Pierre Gilles de Gennes, Albert Fert, Alain Aspect, Doug North , Randy Schekman, and Konstantin Novozelov are part of those. Nobel laureate Georges Charpak was an engaged participant to activities of the Institute in its early days.

Cargese

Cargèse is a pleasant village with considerable charm and of historic interest. It contains most of the services you may require, such as a car rental agency, garages, post office, bank (with ATM machine), restaurants, shops, pharmacy and medical facilities, except for a travel agency and a local public transportation. If you wish to make some tourism around, be advised that not all business accept payment by credit card. Hence, it is recommended to come with your cash, travellers cheques or/and French cheque book.

History of Cargese

In the sixteenth century the pieve of Paomia had only one inhabited place: Paomia which had about 750 inhabitants around 1520.

In January 1676, a small colony of six hundred Greeks from the village of Vitylo (currently in modern Greek Οίτυλο), located south of the Peloponnese on the peninsula of Magne, fleeing the Turkish occupation, settled in the back -countries of Sagone, in Paomia, two kilometers east of the present Cargèse, after a passage through the Republic of Genoa who granted them these lands abandoned to the maquis (Corsica was then Genoese). They were, however, badly received by the local people who saw in them allies of the Republic of Genoa and people who came to enrich themselves on their land.

Several events followed one another to characterize the history of the village. The Greeks have to take refuge in the Omigna tower then in Ajaccio against the attacks of the Corsican villagers (1732). With the cession of Corsica by the Genoese, the island passes under French administration (1768). The pieve of Siasalogna takes the name of pieve of Cargese. The Greeks receive from the French governor of the island, Marbeuf, the territory of Cargèse and build a village of 120 houses (1773). About a hundred Greek families agreed to settle there in May 1775. Marbeuf built a castle in the north-west of the village, where he received Bonaparte's mother for several summers. The castle was destroyed in 1793 by Corsican attackers. Over the centuries, mixed marriages between the descendants of Greek settlers and Corsican favor the merge the two communities of Cargèse. Corsica is part of the kingdom of France (1789), and the department of Corsica is created at the French Revolution (1790). The two churches (Latin rite and Greek rite) are built in the first half of the nineteenth century.