One man enjoyed this meeting more than the others. It was held on Tuesday, December 19, in the heart of the Olympic and Paralympic Village of the Paris 2024 Games, a stone's throw from the Stade de France in Seine-Saint-Denis, northeast of Paris. We were 12 days away from December 31, 2023, the "pivotal date" that Nicolas Ferrand had set himself six years earlier, when he took over as head of Solideo, the company created to build and renovate the facilities for the competition in record time.

The biggest projects include the athletes' village (14,250 beds), the media village, an aquatic center, and a 9,000-seat hall. "In January 2018, the general opinion was that we wouldn't make it. The Grand Paris metro was struggling to get off the ground, EuropaCity (the megacomplex imagined in the fields south of Roissy) wasn't getting off the ground." But now, "on the whole, we're on schedule," announced the engineer proudly, even emotionally, at his annual − and therefore final − update on the progress of the works.

As we enter 2024, there are still three tight projects, but 84% of the work has been delivered. "What counts," said Ferrand, who had experienced a few scares with the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the June riots in France, "is the handover of the keys at the end of February, beginning of March to Cojop [the Organizing Committee for the Games]."

Before Christmas, the sound of drilling could still be heard in the streets of the Olympic Village, which has sprung up in "less than three years" to the north of the French capital, straddling three cities (Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen, Ile-Saint-Denis). Trucks were still delivering some of the 9,000 shrubs and trees which, between now and the summer, should add a little green to the 50-hectare site. But overall, the main part of the work was coming to an end.

January will see the start of the next period. Contractors have two months to carry out the finishing touches, before the Cojop takes over to furnish the interiors. The Place Olympique, the future meeting place for athletes, their families and the press, is now equipped with a spiral ramp linking the central mall of the village to the banks of the Seine, which have been redeveloped for pedestrians.

Opposite, on Île-Saint-Denis, three buildings (500 beds) will be delivered late ("in March") due to problems with the structural work. And since the tone is one of satisfaction, Ferrand pointed out that "2,200 VSBs (Very Small Businesses) and SMEs (Small and medium-sized enterprises) from 86 departments worked" on the showcase site. "All of France built the Olympic Village."

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