Moving to UCLouvain

Planning your travel to Belgium

Louvain-la-Neuve is a small pedestrian city which can be crossed in less than 30 min. walking time. Most academic buildings are within 10 min. walking time from the station as you can check on this map of Louvain-la-Neuve . This also means that public transportation within the city is not available: most people are walking or cycling.

The best and cheapest way to reach Louvain-la-Neuve is by train, either from Grenoble to Brussels, or from Augsburg to Brussels, then to take a local train from Brussels to Louvain-la-Neuve (BEWARE! not the Flemish city of Louvain, which is located 30 km away from Louvain-la-Neuve, and is also known as Leuven). The information on TGV trains from Grenoble to Brussels (South), from Augsburg to Brussels (Central), and from Brussels (any station) to Louvain-la-Neuve is available online. Be aware that some trains from Brussels do not reach directly Louvain-la-Neuve. You will then have to get out in Ottignies, from which Louvain-la-Neuve can be reached by train in less than 10 min.
Students should arrange for some temporary accommodation to bridge the gap between their arrival date and the date at which their permanent accommodation will be available. There is currently only one hotel in Louvain-la-Neuve, the 'Hotel Ibis-Style' (B4 on the map). Other hotels are available in Brussels or Wavre, which are not far from Louvain-la-Neuve (by train).
 

Upon arrival in Belgium

Upon arrival in Belgium, you should first settle in the temporary accommodation you selected, if any. Next, there will be a couple of steps to follow. The best starting point is to cast an eye on the specific web pages of the Louvain School of Engineering.
A meeting with all FAME students will be organized during the first week of the academic year by Prof. Jonas, and complementary information will be given to you; the place of the meeting is the Bio & Soft Matter division of the Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences, level 2 of the Boltzmann building.