Important: final prep for arrival in France

Announcements - Public
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This year’s coworking trip is more complex than usual. So—ahead of your arrival in France, please review this checklist and plan accordingly. Ping me if you need anything!

Emergency contact → Ping or call me (Mattermost or find my Signal/Whatsapp phone number in the Contact sheet) or Xavier (Mattermost or find his Signal/Whatsapp phone number in the Contact sheet) if you encounter any issue while travelling.

Chateau Coliving contact → Your primary contact is Kevin, you can reach him at +316 20459884 on Whatsapp.

Mattermost → install the app on your phone, turn notifications ON, make sure you’re added to the # “Coworking & Open edX Conference 2025” channel.

Phone number → make sure that your phone number is up-to-date on the Contact sheet. We’ll use it if we can’t find you.

Uber → make sure you have access to OpenCraft’s account. Hailing taxis (not Ubers) in Carentan might be complicated. Use Uber to travel between home and your local airport (unless better solutions exist, in which case I’ll reimburse).

Mobile data → make sure you can access the internet once you arrive in France. Activate your eSim in advance if you can.

Transportation Guide → please read/review the transportation guide to plan your arrival. Check-in at the Chateau is at 4:30pm. For those who arrive in Carentan earlier, take the opportunity to visit the town!

Transportation Schedule :star: → Please bookmark it. Use it to carpool at your arrival in Carentan train station, see who has cars, and to carpool during the conference.

Day-of-arrival food :watermelon: → Plan your meals for your arrival day. Upon arrival, try to grab something to eat in Carentan, as there are no restaurants near the Château. There’s a small grocery store (Carrefour Express) close to Carentan train station. It closes at 8pm. You can find a few restaurants nearby, too. We’ll discuss more grocery options in a second.

Splitwise → Use it to split expenses. Install Splitwise on your phone, create an account using your OpenCraft email, and you’ll automatically be added to the group.

Groceries → You’ll need to go grocery shopping :spaghetti: . I’ve discussed this topic with Katia, and here’s the deal. The closest/best grocery store is Super U in Sainte-Mère-Église. You can do things the old-fashioned way, but a good option is to order online—this way, people can pay for their own items. You can find the link to order here: https://www.coursesu.com/drive-superu-saintemereeglise. Please note that the website is in French only, but you can translate it using your browser. There’s also an app available for use (Android, iOS). Everyone needs to create an individual profile and pay for themselves, but one person can pick up the orders. Those who arrive early on June 23 can do this around 4 PM before heading to the castle, for example—just choose a late afternoon pickup slot. Katia mentioned that sometimes the app or website doesn’t work when ordering from outside of France, but it should work for most users.

Let me know if I’ve forgotten anything! cc. @KatiaDimova just in case ; )

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Thanks @gabriel!
I will be arriving at Carentan 13h48, and my wife is planning to get some work done in the afternoon. Is it possible to arrive at the Chateau earlier and stay in the common area to work before check-in? If not, no problem: we will try to find a place to work at Caretean. :slight_smile:

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Hi Romulo,
We won’t be able to have you earlier unfortunately. The previous group leaves at 10 on the same day and we will have a very short turnaround time before everyone’s arrival, otherwise it wouldn’t have been an issue at all.

I just did a quick search, because a lot of coffee places and restaurants are closed Mondays. There’s a coworking space in Carentan you can go to link [HERE]

There is also this bar

The station is the center so you might also see a couple of other places when you arrive.
Nothing very amazing, but it should be okay for a couple of hours.

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Getting hammered right upon arrival— I like this! Welcome to France! :cocktail: :smoking:

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@rpenido I’m arriving in Carentan at 13:38 as well, so I’ll also be looking for a place to sit for a bit. Let me know if you find a nice spot and I may join you!

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Actually, to make sure that everyone reviews the list, I’m pinging everyone and asking that you please respond to the poll below to confirm that you’ve reviewed the list above:

  • I’ve reviewed the list and I’m ready to roll
  • You should not check this option
0 voters

@braden @rpenido @Agrendalath @farhaan @daniel.valenzuela @ChrisChV @tecoholic @kaustav @Ali @cassie @maxim @navin @jill @pooja @artur @tikr @kshitij @Fox @jordan

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Kevin and Katia from Chateau Coliving just shared the following info:

  1. Here is the payment link for the additional people above the 25 mark - Stripe Checkout - each one of them can pay by card using the link (one already asked us earlier and paid)

  2. Supermarket orders and shopping:

  • given that you will be more people than what we would normally have in order to avoid the kitchen being too crowded you can advise people to preview using the BBQs - we have 4 big ones - 2 on gas and 2 on charcoal (pls buy charcoal if you will be using them)

  • we have very limited quota when it comes to trash (recycling and general waste) and given the number of people we would advise that they opt for products with minimum packaging, those can be bought both from the supermarket and the farmer’s market in St Mere Eglise on Thursday - it’s a nice farmers market to go to Thursday morning and there is also a cute bakery and a very nice cafe for brunch (Cafe de L’eglise) if people are interested. It is only 7min by car

  1. Trash - there are new rules in our region since a couple of months and the trash management is quite complicated, and takes time out of the day.

I will explain to everyone on spot too, but basically we would ask them to separate the trash very carefully as indicated on the cans, otherwise we risk major fines.

- Organic trash - we collect on the property (I will show them where)

- Recycling - paper, plastic, cans - goes in the yellow bin at the end of the driveway (ideally by car), pls note this bin get empty once every 2 weeks, so it is a very small quota, if we leave trash next to the bin it will not be collected, so please avoid, plastic and cans. If you have too much carton and paper, it can also be burned at the bonfire

- Glass - goes in the village (3min by car) in the green recycling bins

- Home waste/general waste - only things allowed in the home waste are sponges, razors, diapers, fem hygiene products and condoms - everything else needs to be distributed onto the other bins. The housekeeper is taking care of the bins in the bedrooms, while the kitchen ones are up to you.

What we do in the coliving setting that works well is to assign a a rotation of 3-4 people each day who are in charge of the trash - this way there is no room for conflicts or misunderstandings. In your case you can have groups of 5 on 7 days.

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Here’s some information ahead of your trip to Palaiseau:

Bus to Palaiseau
A bus will pick you up at the Château on Monday, June 30 at 11:00. The bus will arrive at Hôtel Moulin de Lily in Palaiseau around 16:00. A 30-min break is scheduled along the way.

Hotel in Palaiseau
Please check in at the front desk when you arrive. Important note: the hotel will be charging an extra €15 for partners (for the whole stay, not per night). Please pay this by credit card at the front desk when you check in.

There’s a restaurant in the hotel—breakfast is €12.50 per person if you’re interested, but there should be free breakfast or snacks at the conference.

Ubers in Palaiseau :taxi:
Please use this sheet to schedule/carpool Uber rides to/from the conference venue. We have a €50 budget limit per person, so please rotate the leader role (ie the person who pays) as much as possible.

Don’t hesitate if you have any questions!

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@gabriel Could you please check if the bus provider can bring in a baby car seat (for a 2 year old)?

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Sure, I’ll look into it right away.

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IDs will be required for the check-in process at the hotel. The front desk has requested that guests send photos or copies of their IDs to speed up the process. Those who are comfortable doing so can email the documents to contacthotel@lemoulindelily.com (please mention “OpenCraft” in the subject line or in the email body). Otherwise, you can provide your ID at check-in. Thanks!

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@navin In a bus it might be a different rule for baby seats than for cars. The bus company should be able to confirm it, but I think the buses are exempted. (Same for seatbelts for example)

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@antoviaque Yes, if the bus company allows it then we don’t have a problem.

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@gabriel @KatiaDimova Thanks for setting that up! I paid my charges this morning and just to wanted to make sure, did they include the weekly fee for the dogs? :wolf: :fox_face:

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Thanks! I just paid my charges as well.

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I have also made this payment. Thanks! :money_with_wings:

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Have made this payment few days back :slight_smile:

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Me too!

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I paid too.