Address
Vincent
Blondel
Office A126 (first floor)
Building Euler
Parking ground P13
Department of Mathematical Engineering
Université catholique de Louvain
Avenue Georges Lemaître, 4
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Maps
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How to reach Louvain-la-Neuve?
Useful general instructions on how to reach Louvain-la-Neuve.How to reach my office?
Louvain-la-Neuve is a pedestrian town located 30 kilometers South-East of Brussels, in the French-speaking part of Belgium. The town is easily reached by car, train or plane. Blondel's office is office a112 on the first floor of the building "Euler". The administrative office is on the same floor. On the detailed map of Louvain-la-Neuve the Euler building is building 3a and is at location D9.By car. If you arrive by car, take the exit number 8A on the Brussels-Namur-Luxembourg Motorway (E411), then follow the directions "Louvain-la-Neuve Sud", "Biéreau" or "Bruyères". Leave your car in one of the (free) parking grounds. The parking ground P13 is the parking for the Euler building (location D9 on the detailed map of Louvain-la-Neuve). We strongly recommend that you use the parking ground P13. Finding your way to the building from other parking grounds may be harder than you think. The parking is restricted to parking card holders but you are welcome to park there for a short visit.
By train. Louvain-la-Neuve has its own train station (location D6 on the detailed map). There are three main train stations in Brussels: Bruxelles-Nord, Bruxelles-Central, and Bruxelles-Midi (also called Brussel-Zuid). Bruxelles-Midi is the train station for the Thalys (fast train to Paris and Amsterdam) and for the Eurostar (fast train to London). There are trains from all these train stations to Louvain-la-Neuve and the journey takes about 60'. The sequence of the train station is as follows: Bruxelles-Midi, Bruxelles-Central, Bruxelles-Nord, Ottignies, Louvain-la-Neuve. Half of the trains are direct trains between Brussels and Louvain-la-Neuve, for the other half one has to change train in Ottignies. This connection is easy: the other train in Ottignies is on the opposite platform. General timetables are available from Timetables of the Belgian Railways. On an ordinary weekday and during daytime there are trains at the following times (last update: January 2008, with H between 7 and 18):
| Bruxelles-Midi | Bruxelles-Central | Bruxelles-Nord | Ottignies | Louvain-la-Neuve |
| H:03 | H:07 | H:12 | H:43 | |
| H:52 | H+1:00 | |||
| H:21 | H:25 | H:30 | H+1:09 | H+1:17 |
| H:33 | H:37 | H:42 | H+1:13 | |
| H+1:22 | H+1:30 | |||
| H:43 | H:47 | H:52 | H+1:52 | H+2:00 |
When buying a ticket or checking for
connections, please indicate "Louvain-la-Neuve". Simply indicating
"Louvain" or "Leuven" may take you to the flemish city of Leuven wich
is 30 km from Louvain-la-Neuve! The Euler building is a pleasant ten minutes
walk from the train station in Louvain-la-Neuve. For finding your way
from the train station to the Euler building, we strongly recommend
that you download and print the detailed map of Louvain-la-Neuve or the
map with the recommended path. You may also print and follow the
following instructions:
From the train station walk up the street ("rue des Wallons")
all the way through "Place des Wallons", "Place Galilée" and
"Place des Sciences" (a place with wooden floor). From the "Place des
Sciences", follow the indications for "Sainte Barbe". Walk through the
building "Sainte-Barbe" and exit on the other side of the building. You
are on the "Place Sainte Barbe". From there, walk in the direction of
the building "Maxwell" and just before entering the building "Maxwell",
turn left, walk 50 m, enter the parking on your right and go up the
stairs. You now see the building "Euler" on your right.
By plane.
Brussels National Airport. The main
airport close to Louvain-la-Neuve is the Belgian international airport:
Brussels Airport at Zaventem (BRU).
From the airport
you can take a taxi directly to Louvain-la-Neuve. There is a taxi line
just outside the arrival building and the ride will cost you
about 70 EURO (the company Artgens, Taxi and limousines services, tel.:
+32 10 452222 or +32 496 262222, artgens@skynet.be,
knows Louvain-la-Neuve quite well). The journey between the airport and
Louvain-la-Neuve takes about 30 minutes when there is little traffic.
During rush hours, this may be two to four times that long. Rush hours
in
the "Airport to Louvain-la-Neuve" direction are typically from 7:30 to
9:30AM and from 5:00 to 7:00PM. The
airport is also connected by train to the train station
"Bruxelles-Nord" in Brussels from which there are train connections to
Louvain-la-Neuve. The complete journey takes about 60 minutes. On an
ordinary weekday and during daytime there are trains at the
following times (last update: January 2008, with H between 7 and 18):
| Bruxelles-Aéroport | Bruxelles-Nord | Ottignies | Louvain-la-Neuve |
| H:04 | H:15 | ||
| H:30 | H+1:07 | H+1:17 | |
| H:26 | H:39 | ||
| H:52 | H+1:36 | H+2:00 | |
| H:52 | H+1:03 | ||
| H+1:12 | H+1:43 | ||
| H+1:52 | H+2:00 |
Charleroi Brussels-South Airport. There is also a much smaller airport (mostly operated by Ryanair) on the South of Brussels. The airport is really located in the town of Charleroi but likes to call itself Brussels-South: Brussels-South Airport at Charleroi-Gosselies (CRL). From the this airport, there is a bus service to the railway station of Charleroi (Charleroi-Sud), where you can take a train to Louvain-la-Neuve (via Ottignies). The journey takes a little more than an hour. There are also buses that go directly to Brussels.
Accommodation in Louvain-la-Neuve
Hotel
IBIS Styles (about 80 EUR/night, three stars, for short stays,
15 minutes walk from the center of Louvain-le-Neuve and the train
station, 25' minutes walk from the building Euler, location B4 on the
map)
Boulevard de Lauzelle, 61
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Tel : 32 10 45 07 51
Fax : 32 10 48 09 11
Service
des logements de l'UCL (university information office for
long stays, mostly for students)
Place polyvalente, 1
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Tel : 32 10 47 22 92
Fax : 32 10 47 20 39
Tourism Ottignies Louvain-la-Neuve (has information on various aspects to make your visit enjoyable, including rental of flats,
appartments and houses)
Galerie des Halles
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Tel: 32 10 47 47 47
Fax : 32 10 47 35 31
"Université catholique de Louvain" and "Katholieke universiteit Leuven"
The century old "Université catholique de Louvain" also known as "UCL" or "UCLouvain" is Belgium's largest and oldest French-speaking university. The university has about 20.000 students and was founded by the pope Martin V in 1425 in the Flemish town of Louvain (in Flemish, Leuven). The university is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Those attending the university in the XVIth century include the theologian and humanist Erasmus, the geographer Mercator, and the father of modern anatomy Vesalius.
In the 20th century courses at the university were taught in
French but
Flemish gradually entered lecture rooms. In 1968, due to repeated
protests from Flemish organisations and by the Flemish student population,
the university was
split in two distinct universities: the Flemish speaking "Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven)" remained in Leuven, and the French
speaking "Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)" moved 20
km south of
Brussels in the newly constructed town of Louvain-la-Neuve in the
French speaking Wallonia region (except for the Faculty of Medicine
that moved to Brussels). At the time of the splitting the tension was
very high.
According to
history, the century old university library was split in two, with
even-numbered volumes on one side and odd-numbered volumes on the
other. Today the two sister universities do collaborate
intensively both on education and research and the rectors have regular
joint strategic meetings. The name of the two universities should
however not be
translated into English to avoid confusion.
Please consult Six Centuries of History for a more complete description.
Belgium, a federal state
Belgium is a federal state, consisting of three language communities (Flemish, French and German), and three regions (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels). Louvain-la-Neuve is located in the Walloon region. The Université catholique de Louvain also has multiple other campuses, including in Brussels, Mons and Tournai; see Campus life for more details. 