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Previous: Suriname
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Capital: Cayenne
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Initially settled by the French in 1660 Guyane passed in Dutch hands, then British, then French again, then Dutch again, then French again, then Portuguese, and finally back to the French in 1817. Cayenne was an infamous penal colony but it became the French Overseas Department of Guyane in 1946 meaning that its people became French citizens with the same privileges as mainland French. Guyane has a high standard of living and is an expensive place to visit. Its location at only 5 degrees north of the equator makes its Kourou spacial center an ideal place for launching geostationary satellites for the European space program (Cape Canaveral is at 28 degrees north). The population is mostly Catholic and much more homogeneous than that of Suriname or Guyana but the overwhelming Creole majority is being eroded by illegal immigration from Suriname, Brazil and Haiti, it is now estimated that 70% are Creole, 10% Caucasian, 8% Asian, 8% Brazilian and 4% Amerindian. |
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| Lonely Planet CIA | ||
The old "Préfecture".
Typical Cayenne style house with the characteristic broad eaved shade roof to keep the sun out of the first floor windows. This building on Lalouette street had stores on the street level with flats above.
The cafe "Les Palmistes", on Avenue du Général de Gaule, shows a variation on the extra roof theme.
Market on avenue Monerville.
I did not like Cayenne much. It was Hot, humid, run down and very, very expensive. The cheapest I could find was a tiny room in this miserable Hotel Neptima on the corner of rue Félix Éboué and rue du Lieutenant Goinet for 47 US$, not per week, but each day! And the air conditioning didn't work!
I did not regret leaving to fly back to Port of Spain on my way to Grenada.
