SOLEIL SOLEIL SOLEIL ("Sun" in French) is a synchrotron facility near Paris, France. It performed its first acceleration of electrons on May 14, 2006. The name "SOLEIL" is a backronym for "Source optimisée de lumière d’énergie intermédiaire du LURE" (LURE optimised intermediary energy light source), LURE meaning "Laboratoire pour l'utilisation du rayonnement électromagnétique". The facility is run by a civil corporation held by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), two French national research agencies. It is located in Saint-Aubin in the Essonne département, a south-western suburb of Paris, near
Portes du Soleil Midi and the Dents Blanches, at the end of the Vallée d’Illiez. It is a 150 years old village which was among the initiating towns when the Portes du Soleil skiarea was established in the late Sixties. There are no pistes leading all the way down to Champery due in part to the fact that the mountainside above the town is heavily exposed to snow. The Champéry – Planachaux cable-car (125 passengers) and the 6-seater chairlift in Grand-Paradis are fast connections into the Portes du Soleil system. Portes du Soleil Les Portes du Soleil (literally "The Doors of the Sun")