The 8th Symposium on Smart Graphics will take place in Rennes, the capital of Brittany, France. It will be hosted by Rennes University (INRIA/IRISA Lab - http://www.irisa.fr)


Rennes is located in Brittany (northwest of France) and is the capital of the "Region Bretagne". The fierce country of Brittany was long time independant with regard to the French crown. After many years of war and after Charles VIII unsuccesfull attack in 1491, the Duchess Anne de Bretagne negotiated --and eventually maried Charles VIII-- to make Brittany a part of France. Poeple say this was the best way to jealously guard Brittany's autonomy!

Rennes is a beautiful city of art and history, built at the intersection of two rivers, the Ille and the Vilaine, that has made many efforts to maintain ancient historical buildings (such as timber frame houses, the Brittany parliament or the Place des Lices), thereby offering amazing sightscenes. Besides, Rennes has long time promoted the integration of modern architecture in the city, offering visitors a interesting and contrasting view of architectural variety.

The city is well known for its important cultural activity (music and cinema festivals) and dynamic night life. The rue St Michel offers an important concentration of bars and is well known as "la rue de la soif" (road of thirst). Many restaurants allow visitors to taste a variety of excellent buckwheat flour panecakes, from the classical "galette saucisse" to fine and tasteful "galette St Jacques" (seafood scallops and glasswort on a bed of fresh cream, a must taste).

For more Information on Rennes, please visit the following web pages:

http://en.tourisme-rennes.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes
http://www.rennes.fr/


Irisa is a publicly funded research laboratory with a staff of 540, including more than 170 full-time research scientists or teaching research scientists and 150 postgraduate students.
INRIA, CNRS, University of Rennes 1 and INSA Rennes are all partners in this mixed research unit. Around thirty research projects or actions are centered around major scientific topics, i.e.:

• networks and systems
• software engineering and symbolic computation
• man-machine interaction
• images, data, knowledge
• simulation and optimization of complex systems.

These generic themes find their application in many fields, resulting in interdisciplinary cooperation with other leading professionals from both the academic and the industrial world, in areas such as telecommunications, multimedia, transport, genome science, emerging technologies applied to health, environment etc. Irisa/Inria's brief is first and foremost:

• to undertake fundamental and applied research at the highest possible scientific level and to ensure visibility through publications and international exchanges;
• to carry out technology transfer and valorization work with our partners
• SME's in the area or research and development departments in large international industrial groups -in order to disseminate our knowledge and know-how.

Moreover, our unit is now fully involved in the business start-up program launched by INRIA and by the Rennes-Atalante "technopole".
Irisa, in cooperation with Ifsic -the Advanced ICT Training Institute, plays an active role in training postgraduate students through and for research. The internships and the doctoral theses undertaken under the supervision of Irisa staff are essential in maintaining the necessary impetus and innovation in our research effort. Postdoctoral assistants and visiting staff on sabbaticals also contribute to our potential.

• By train
  There are several trains (TGV) on a typical week day from Paris, Lille and Lyon to Rennes. In the following is listed the number of round trips and journey times with a TGV (high speed train):
  • 20 TGV Paris-Rennes (2h03)
  • 3 TGV Roissy/CdG airport-Rennes (2h58)
  • 3 TGV Lille-Rennes (3h45)
  • 2 TGV Lyon-Rennes (4h25)
  For more information see the French SNCF Railway server Please notice that before getting into the train you need to punch your ticket in the machines that can be found in the entrance to the platform.
  From the train station (northern exit "Gare nord"), to reach the campus, you have several possibilities (see the map):
  • Bus: line #41express is direct from the train station (just in front of the train station, on the left side) to the campus (week days only). Departures: 7h35, 7h45, 7h55, 8h10 and 8h35. Get out at the "Tournebride" bus stop.
  • Back to train station (from "Tournebride" bus stop): 16h09, 16h44, 17h14, 17h45, 18h15 and 18h44.
  • Subway+bus: take the subway at the Railway station "Gares" towards "J.F. Kennedy" and get out at "République". Just at the exit, in front of the "République" building, you will find the bus stop for the bus lines #6 (direction "Acigné Base de Loisirs"), #16 (direction "Beaulieu Atalante"). Get out at the "Tournebride" bus stop.
  • Walk+bus: walk along the J. Janvier avenue up to the Vilaine river. Turn left (Quai Zola): the bus stop (lines #6, #16 or #40express) is 20 m away, close to the Museum ("Pasteur/Musée" bus stop). Get out at "Tournebride" bus stop.
  
  The Irisa building is just in front of the bus stop after crossing a parking lot (see the map). It takes about 15-20 minutes to reach the campus from the train station. Tickets and fares: a 1-hour ticket costs 1,10 euro. You will find general information about the public transportation service in Rennes (buses and subway) on the Star web server.
  
  
• By plane
  From Rennes-St Jacques airport there are 22 direct daily flights to French and European towns. From Dinard Airport (70 km from Rennes) there is a daily flight to/from London Stansted by Ryanair.
  To reach Irisa/Inria from the airport:
  • Taxi: It is the recommended way from the airport. During day time it costs around 20 euros to reach the campus.
  • Bus: line #57 links St-Jacques to Rennes city center. Buses run from 6h50 to 19h45 about once an hour and every 10-15 minutes during the rush hours. Bus stops "Pommerais" or "Abbé Grimault" are 800 meters away from the airport in the St-Jacques village. (travel time around 20 min.) Once arrived at "République" which is the terminus of the line 57, you have to change for bus lines #6 (direction "Acigné Base de Loisirs"), #16 or #40express (direction "Beaulieu Atalante") that leave just in front of the République building. The total travel time is around 40 min. Get out at "Tournebride" bus stop.
  
  
  The Irisa building is just in front of the bus stop after crossing a parking lot.

For exchange rates to the EURO, please see

http://www.x-rates.com/d/EUR/table.html