French Guiana on the north east coast of South America borders Brazil to south and east, and Suriname to the west. Using the euro as currency, French Guiana is one of the 26 regions of France. Its Head of State is the President of France and it forms a “departement d’outre mer” (overseas department) of France. The French National Assembly in Paris includes two elected representatives from French Guiana. The country relies on French subsidies for its survival.

The archipelago of Salvation Islands (Iles du Salut) and Connetable bird sanctuary islands are part of the French Guiana territory. Ile Royale is developed for tourists and Ile St Joseph and the notorious Ile du Diable make up the trio of Salvations. Ile du Diable (Devil’s Island) is where, in 1894, the Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was kept in solitary confinement with a sole keeper, having been sentenced following allegations of treason. Having been proved innocent he was reinstated into the military in 1906, as well as being decorated with the French Legion of Honour. The novel “Papillon” fictionalised this extraordinary event.


Prison Church

Nowadays, French Guiana is best known for its space centre at Kourau, launch site for Europe’s Ariane rockets, and employs 15,000 workers.

The Cayenne-Rochambeau Airport is to the south of the capital, in the suburb of Matoury. Daily flights link Cayenne to Orly, Paris. For the latest visa requirements visit www.projectvisa.com

It is hot and humid here, with a heavy rainfall (heaviest in July and August), thunderstorms and floods, and little change throughout the year. For more detailed weather information visit www.worldweather.org .

French and various native patois dialects are spoken.

Arawak, Carib and Warao tribes live in this country which records human occupation dating back thousands of years in its collection of ancient petroglyths. The Makusi, the Savannah dwellers’ ancestors, belonged to this period.

The Spanish explorers arrived at the beginning of the sixteenth century. A temporary settlement existed at Cayenne in 1503 and by 1581 the Dutch had claimed the area. A leper colony scratched out a living here and from 1798 until 1935 it was a penal colony. (In 1814 British, French and Brazilian Portuguese squabbled over ownership – the Treaty of Paris 1814 finally awarded the territory to France.)

An 1853 a decree by Napoleon III sent all French convicts with sentences in excess of seven years duration to the dreaded Iles du Salut. Cayenne became known as the City of the Condemned as they all arrived here prior to being shipped over to the Salvation Islands. The bad flavour caused by the Dreyfus affair, eventually saw the closure of the last of the prisons in 1935.


Ruins of the Solitary Cell Block

In the twentieth century refugees were being found places in French Guiana. The most successful scheme towards the end of the 1970s, was the settling of Laotian refugees on farms in French Guiana, and these people are still cultivating crops there to this day.

With a mainly catholic population of 130,000 (2/3 black/mulatto, 1/3 white, Chinese, Indigenous, Indian and other), French Guiana occupies some 35,000 square miles of terrain, its low lying coastal plains climbing the Tumac-HumacMountains to the highest point of Belle Vue de l’Inini at 2,790 ft. All but 20% of the country is pure equatorial forest and of the rest, about 1%, is cultivated, hence the need for French subsidies. A variety of crops are grown for home consumption – rice, corn, manioc, bananas, sugar cane, fruit, vegetables and spice. Cattle, poultry and pigs are reared.

The main industry (after employment provided by the Space Centre), is fishing, with forestry and agriculture following behind. Shrimps, prawns and rice are exported. A growing market exists for tropical hardwoods and their products, such as rosewood essence. Coffee, cayenne peppers, pineapples and rum are also exported to a lesser degree.

The French Government has tourism initiatives in place to maximise the country’s potential. The former prison at St Laurent is open to the public, as too is the Space Centre at Kourau where demonstration rocket launches can be seen. There is a comprehensive Space museum at the Centre, with information and exhibits being added to it all the time.

Guiana Amazonian Park was opened as the ninth National Park of France, and eco tourism is on the increase. Inland jungle expeditions can be taken to the gold mining village of Saul. Botanic trails and waterfall hikes are regularly led, and bird watchers and naturalists adventures are on offer through forest and mangrove swamp.


Maripasoula

One tour in particular is an expedition to Maripasoula where the Bush Negro community lives. Although this is a commercial enterprise, the local people enter into the spirit of the visit that has been organised, and do their utmost to see that tourists enjoy themselves and they manage to lose their natural shyness as they try to share their everyday lives with the visitors.

The much publicised hatching of the turtles can be witnessed between July and September at Les Hattes Beach where the Maroni and Mana River mouths converge. (The actual egg laying takes place in April.)

Cruise ships call at Devil’s Island but no hotel has been built there to exploit the Dreyfus/Papillon factor.

Cayenne itself, the capital of French Guiana, has 125,000 people and is certainly very French. You will find it as expensive as France itself. Along with exquisite French cuisine, you can expect to eat local fare such as anaconda, caiman and shark, and the Creole influence on food here ensures the interesting addition of spices, limes, yams, nutmeg and breadfruit.


Cayenne

There are some lovely examples of Colonial architecture, colourful markets and a superb archaeological museum here in Cayenne. This is a totally unique city where France meets Africa, meets the incomparable Amerindian Amazonia, meets China and Vietnam and meets the Bush Negro (the Noir Marrons) in one steaming exciting melting pot of a capital.

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