Even if this is not the place to drink a coffee and discuss last night’s party, the
documentation centre is still a great place to relax. A magnificent space of around 300m²
(about 3 230fqqt), with its grey carpet, wood panelling, glazed shelving and with ancient books adorning the walls, it is ideal for quiet reflection and reading.

It has a considerable stock of books (some 20 000 works) and a large number of periodicals. In all, the School receives regularly some 270 printed works ranging from the national daily press to weekly reviews, foreign press and specialist reviews (Nature, Physics Today, The CNRS Journal, La Recherche, Sciences et Avenir).
One service that is particularly popular is the daily selection and distribution, via the School’s intranet, of the most interesting and pertinent articles from these publications. Using this same technology, the School has also heavily invested in a project to speed up the students’ document searches. On the one hand all the works in the SCIDEM are referenced with a bar code and then stored in a central database to allow their consultation on line. The Virtual Grande École (GEV) project, which was launched in January 2001 as part of the drive to integrate new technologies in ICM syllabus and course work, has certainly given impetus to the SCIDEM with the creation of an educational portal, which has been on line since January 2003 and gives access to the extraordinary Web of Science database.
Always seeking to improve access, a training application in document research was put into production in 2000. This program, the Sistem, is the source of some envy from other schools, decreasing as it does quite substantially the search times for information. In addition to this application, a half-day training session is also offered to the students at the start of every year and there are eight free-access computers permanently available in the SCIDEM which can be used to consult reviews on line.

There are three hundred and fifty rooms altogether in the Student Residence or ME (Maison des élèves). These break down to about two hundred and twenty-four of about 12 m² (or 130 ft² which are equipped with shower, sink, bed, desk, wardrobe, fridge, telephone and TV), another one hundred and twenty-three of around 20 m² (or 215 ft², fitted out the same way with the addition of a toilet and a kitchenette) and finally four two-room apartments of about 30 m² (or about 322 ft²) for couples.

Situated around eight hundred metres from the School, the building was constructed in 1965, and, at night, when all the windows are lit up, it resembles a cruise liner. The ME has not stopped growing in all its time and now covers some 8 000 m² (or 86 100 ft² of which 5 200 m² or 56 000 ft² are dedicated to bedroom space), divided into four wings some of which are seven stories high. In all, the ME has over three hundred and fifty-five residents (nineteen of them are permanent staff to run the place) and forms a small city within the city itself!
Completely renovated in 1989, the ME offers every modern convenience, every floor has a kitchen equipped with hobs, microwave and traditional ovens, offering the possibility of frequent and sometimes memorable communal dinners. The basement contains a launderette with washers and dryers, which is open 24 hours a day.
In the entry hall, twenty six letterboxes (one for each letter of the alphabet) and a package
reception area maintain the contact with the outside world. Each room is cleaned once a week and the common areas once a day. Three of the four wings have a lift.

But the ME’s facilities do not stop there.
There is a cafeteria and discotheque (with bar, dance floor and mixing tables) where weekly parties are organised. There is also a TV room with satellite channels (Canal+) and VCR, a piano room and sound-proof music studio with amps and a drum kit, a photo development lab and, dotted around the place, a full array of pool tables, table football games and ping pong tables.