Administrative and logistic information
Table of contents
Getting to Paris
If you arrive to the airports, do NOT take taxis from people who approach you. This is illegal, and these people may be dangerous. Just say “no” firmly. You can walk to a taxi stand by following the signs; take an uber or bold; or follow the signs to get to Paris by train or bus.
Getting in
Our lab (LSCP) is the only one on the 4th floor of the Jaurès building (29 rue d’ulm). Two ways of getting here:
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You can come into the ENS through the 24 rue lhomond entrance; there is a buzzer on the right of the door, and a guard will buzz you right in. You can then follow the signs to the bâtiment Jaurès. Once inside Jaurès head up to the 4th floor. You’ll see the stairs right away - in fact, you have to go up 5 steps to get to the ground level. If you’d rather not take the stairs up to the 4th floor, you’ll find a very slow but effective elevator to the left after you’ve come up the 5 steps. If you’re carrying something heavy or have mobility difficulties, prioritize the second option.
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Alternatively, you can come in through 29 rue d’Ulm, but you need to wait for someone to open the door for you. You can wait and tell a passerby that you’re meeting Dr. Cristia at the LSCP - they’ll let you through. Or you can call me & I’ll come down to meet you. When you make it in, go through the glass doors straight ahead. The elevator will be on your right, or you can take the stairs up to the 4th floor.
The lab is open from 9am to 7pm.
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you need your card to re-enter the lab after going to the restroom
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codes to access the lab are kept here
Teleworking
teleworking 40% is allowed, but needs to be declared. For CNRS employed people, follow this link, for ENS, ask Radhia
Most people are around on Tuesdays (Mondays, Thursdays).
If there are issues that would make it better for you to work from elsewhere you can totally do this! If it happens very frequently, let us know - perhaps there is something we can do to fix the situation.
Lunch
- You can eat at the “cantine ENS”, located inside 45 rue d’Ulm (just follow the noon crowd!). Menus for outsiders are about 9E but quiches and sandwiches at the bar (at the end of the room) are 2-3E - you’ll probably have an intermediate price. Ask about this when getting the ENS card.
- You can also get a sandwich etc from a nearby store (several on e.g. rue Saint Jacques, rue du pot de fer, rue mouffetard).
- The kitchen is free for use, you can use the fridge & coffee machine but please read the instructions posted in the kitchen. Note you’ll be expected to pitch in for cleaning if you do use the kitchen…
- There is also a coffee machine in the main hall downstairs, which is mug adaptable
Equipment
- If you are missing computer hardware (cables, peripherals), you can ask Vireack.
- If you are missing pens, notebooks, etc - ask Radhia.
Training opportunities
If you would like to get training on topics ranging from statistics, programming, to French as a foreign language, you can ask Radhia Achheb, who is ‘correspondante formation’. Once you know when the course will take place & how long it lasts, ask Alex whether it would be appropriate for your project.
advice for international incomers:
Official address
A lot of things will require you to give an address (in France) when you get to Paris (bank account, ENS forms, etc). If you don’t already have a long term stable address you can use: - The ENS address (LSCP
Housing
If you need to find housing in Paris, a few options for your search are: - Facebook groups. They can be helpful, usually used by individuals and they may be a good way to find specifics (groups for co-housing, international students, subletting (fair warning, a lot of subletting is done without proper permission) etc) - Agencies. Some cater to internationals’ needs. Paris Attitude is an option. In general, this will be more pricey, with the possibility of virtual visits. Agencies lacking support for internationals could be harder to interact with, mostly because of the paperwork they expect (pay slips for the last 3 months, declaration of a guarantor (garant), address) and the high conditions they have (usually making 3 times the monthly rent) adn the language, but they could be useful. - ENS housing can be useful (probably only for single person as they are very small), it offers considerably cheaper options, but only for a limited time. In the entire procedure, you are likely do not encounter many, if any, people who speak other languages than french. - For searching directly at housing ads, the vast majority are published on a few websites : leboncoin, seloger and pap . Anybody can publish ads so you will find individuals but also agency ads. Affordable letting ads in Paris are scarce, so you will need to be very reactive to apply shortly after they are published and hope to get a visit. We recommend using jinka, this app regroups ads from a lot of websites (including the ones we mentioned here) offers a good way of navigating all ads, as well as creating alerts as soon as something matching your criteria is published
Caution !! Scams are very common in the housing market. You should NOT EVER PAY ANYTHING before your contract is signed AND you were welcomed in and given the keys.
Bank accounts
If you have a work contract, payment of your salary will probably be done by bank transfer, and you will need a french bank account number. It is importnat to note that you CANNOT use the ENS address to open it. You need a french address and a french phone number. You can use any bank here, but people who had to go through this in the past recommended: - société générale at Gay Lussac. They have english speaking people. You should ask to be advised by Mouna, she has been of great help in the past. - online banking : (N26, Nickel, Boursorama), but has some Country constraints (no N26 for US??)
Getting a (french) phone number
To get a usable french number (lots of procedures will require one), you can choose one of those options: - E-sim service : (e.g. AIRACO) can get any country phone number, cheap, get data plans, whatsapp, facetime. BUT NO CALLS and SMS SO NOT WORKING FOR BANKS - regular phone number (free, sfr, orange etc…). You need an address and bank account in france (RIB will work even without having a card), because apparently, you can’t pay from those plans from an oversea bank (in the experience of a US student). - Burner phone. This is a cheap and quick option that can use for bank account. And it is easy to just buy with cash.
Transportation
The most convenient ways to get around Paris and its region are public transit and cycling. For public transit, if you are using it regurlarly, yo would benefit from choosing a plan rather than paying a per trip ticket. The options in terms of plans are: - Navigo Easy: A card where you load tickets in advance (there are 2 kinds of tickets Metro-train-rer for 2.5€ and tram-bus for 2€, you can multiple of the same type but not different kinds at the same time), this is interesting only if using tickets scarcely and lending it to others. - Navigo liberté+ : A card ‘pay as you go’. It will count the number of trips and withdraw montly what you owe. This pass gives you s discount on trip prices compared to standard tickets (metro 2€, bus-tram 1.6€). You cannot lend this card to a friend! This is a good option if only using transit from time to time - Navigo Montly/yearly plans: Those passes grant you unlimited trips for the given time period (monthly go from 1st of month to last day of month, you cannot start one from the middle of the month). If you choose those, the university/employer will cover a large part of it (you will need to file a request and the money will be given to you in your pay slips). This is definitely the best option is using transit daily. With the employer coverage, this plan becomes the cheapest option at around 12 trips a months or more. The yearly plan will give you 1 free month at the end of the year if you kept your plan the entire year.
For cycling, you can either use your own bike (bring or buy one) or self-service bikes. You will find quite a lot of bicycle shops in Paris, or you can use leboncoin to search for ads. Beware of scams !! do not buy stolen bikes. A lot of people have gotten their bike stolen. Use a (or multiple) good lock(s) (cable locks tend to be less secure, prefer U locks), store it in a secured spot (private areas in buildings, locked bicycle parking boxes) when possible, especially for longer periods of time, and at night.
For self-service bikes, you can use velib. They have electric and manual bikes that have to be picked up and dropped off in specific stations. Pick you bike carefully a the station to avoid malfunctioning ones, beware that some stations can get empty or full depending of time of the day and where they are in the city (people ride to the center in the morning and to the periphery in the evening, touristic places are often full). Other companies like dott or lime operated self-service bikes, those are scattered in the city and do not have stations.
Additional literature
- règlement intérieur
- livret accueil DEC
- organigram lab