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The tourist areas of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and the Îles du Salut in French Guiana are, at the same time, places of paradise-like beauty, and historically, the penal colony’s key sites of incarceration. Visitors to contemporary Guiana are seduced by these beautiful locations, and by the violent past of the country’s history built on the confi nement of prisoners from mainland France and its colonies. For the local population of Guiana, contemporary interest in the country’s heritage forces a confrontation with the area’s history of punishment as well as slavery. For many, this historical perspective poses the possibility of reducing the country’s historical identity and narrative to one of oppression and confi nement. However, at the same time, it is impossible to forget this past. This reduction turns out to be ubiquitous: it is amazingly prolifi c in so far as stories of escaped prisoners and their adventures continually appear in …