Monday June 18th

Monday brought our last full day as a group in Paris. With a free day for either travel or touring around Paris Tuesday, our professor had a few stops in mind for the day. However, I had previously arranged an interview with a contact regarding my thesis, so I went out on my own for the morning while the group checked out the sights. After a fairly long Metro ride out of the main city center, I arrived at the offices of COLAS. COLAS, the self-termed “worldwide leader in road construction,” completed over 110,000 projects last year with revenues over 12 billion euros. With my background in civil construction, I was very excited about the opportunity to meet with such a huge company. I met with Julien Guery, the chief project manager for the large projects division. Mr. Guery was very helpful in explaining COLAS’s involvement in public-private partnerships and his opinion of the future of PPPs in France. 

Following my meeting, I took the Metro back into the city to grab lunch and do some afternoon shopping. To complete our last day together as a group, our professors scheduled a potluck dinner by the Eiffel Tower. Everyone brought assorted dishes, from smoked salmon to pizza. It was fun for all of us to sit around and talk about our individual experiences on the trip and share our favorite portions that others might not have known about. Because we had enjoyed watching the lights on the Eiffel Tower a few nights prior, we decided to stay after our dinner and enjoy the lights one last time on a cool evening. Yet again, we were dazzled by the lights and enjoyed our time at the massive tower.