The service from Paris to Cayenne is made by the daily Air France flight (AF 3508) leaving Paris Orly airport at 10:45 am for a landing in Cayenne at 14:40 (local time) after roughly 9 hours flight.
About one hour after take-off, heading westwards, we flew over French
Brittany, slightly northern to Nantes where the prisoners were embarked for
their deportation to French Guyana 100 years ago. We shall come back later in this blog on this part of
the French History. Today, flying exactly over Brest gave us a chance,
despite the few clouds, to see the most western tip of France : la Pointe du Raz,
before the start of the Atlantic ocean crossing.
Today, the Atlantic crossing looks to be almost straight from Brittany to
Cayenne
After roughly eight hours flight, we approached French Guyana coastal line shadowed by heavy clouds. On the foreground you can observe the Iles duRemire (Remire islands).
Their history is full of legends and some of them are now protected. Here, just a
close up on the “le Malingre” one of these very tiny islands of the archipelago.
The plane will land in few minutes to Cayenne Airport which had this
beautiful and evocative name of Rochambeau. (RBO) Both the father Jean-Baptiste and his son Donatien-Marie-Joseph participated to the American revolution. These names carry all the beauty of the "siècle des lumieres" as well as the “grandeurs et misères” of the French history in
American colonies... As from the 1st January this year, the airport was renamed Felix Eboué (CAY) airport.
But before we land, the next picture shows the mouth of the Mahury river and the Degrad des Cannes harbour which brings us back to MSG-3. Don’t mix up Cannes with Cannes the city of the Riviera. Here we are talking here about sugar cannes! "Degrad" or "degradé" means in French slope, which reveals then the full meaning to this name: a dedicated place on the bank where you can load the sugar canes on the boats. Note that opposite to the harbour, there is the Polder de Marianne. Dutch should not be very far…
But before we land, the next picture shows the mouth of the Mahury river and the Degrad des Cannes harbour which brings us back to MSG-3. Don’t mix up Cannes with Cannes the city of the Riviera. Here we are talking here about sugar cannes! "Degrad" or "degradé" means in French slope, which reveals then the full meaning to this name: a dedicated place on the bank where you can load the sugar canes on the boats. Note that opposite to the harbour, there is the Polder de Marianne. Dutch should not be very far…
A view on the Felix Eboué airport and on the estuary of the Mahury river.
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