Kourou

Kourou existed as a small river settlement long before the rockets came, and the town now lives two lives at once: launch days fill the hotels and the viewing sites, and the rest of the time it is a quiet coastal place where the Kourou river meets the Atlantic, with a beach along the front, the Dreyfus tower on the point and pirogues going out to the Îles du Salut. The pepper-pot stone tower on the shore was built to signal to the prison islands offshore.

History

Before the French arrived in the late 17th century the area was mostly Kalina country, and at Les Roches Gravées nearby their rock art can still be seen; Vicente Yáñez Pinzón sailed past in 1500, the Jesuits brought baptised Galibi to farm across the river from December 1710, and in 1744 La Condamine, returning from his expedition to measure the meridian near the equator, gave his name to a mountain behind the town. In 1763, after losing New France, the French sent a great expedition under Choiseul, and some 10,000 to 12,000 settlers, lured by tales of an El Dorado, landed at Kourou; around 6,000 died within the year of fevers, and the survivors recovered on the windswept, mosquito-free islands offshore, which were then renamed the Salvation Islands. The failure gave the colony the name Green Hell, and in 1852 the islands off Kourou became part of the penal colony, with the Kourou prison itself given mostly to farming (Wikipedia, Kourou).

The main sights

• The Dreyfus tower - the stone signal tower on the point facing the prison islands.
• The river mouth - pirogues and fishing boats where the Kourou meets the sea.
• The beach front - the long sand strip the town sits behind.
• The launch days - the town filling when a rocket goes up the road.

When to go

July to November is the long dry season. Launch dates are published ahead and change the town completely. The wet season peaks from April to June.

What to expect

Between launches the town itself is quiet and half a day covers it. The beach is brown Atlantic water rather than Caribbean blue. Hotels price up sharply around launch dates.

Nearby

The space centre is inland, and the Îles du Salut are offshore.

Key facts