French Guyana St-Laurent-du-Maroni

Took an all-day tour from Paramaribo. This is the place made famous in the movie Papillon. Peter, the other passenger, was visiting from the Netherlands, and he understood the local language. Gilbert was our driver from All Suriname Tours. I paid extra to cover for the 4 people min. We drove to Albina and took the motor canoe across the river to French Guyane. Saint-Laurence-du-Maroni was a Pinal colonial that housed 70,000 prisoners. Any prisoners with over 2 year sentence they were brought here from France. The boat came twice a year. Once here, 99% chance you never made it back. Prisoners were making bricks or were taken by train to sugar plantations to work. They built all the buildings in the city. A few prisoners that had repeated offenses were taken to Davils Island. Once you finish your sentence, you had no money, so you stayed in the "free" part of the prison and worked for money. Later on, they brought female prisoners who stayed with the nuns. Officers, guards, and free prisoners were "buying " them. Some got married to free prisoners and were getting housing.
Charming citi today with a Hotel-de-ville and Palais-de-JusticeRead more