Kenneth Kaunda

Kourou is a common French, located in the department of Guyana. With: 19170 inhabitants, Kourou is the second city most populated of this Overseas department (DOM) behind Cayenne. Its inhabitants are called Kourouciens and Kourouciennes.

Formerly known for its Bagne, it is today especially famous to shelter the Guianese Space center (CSG), economic engine of all Guyana.

Geography

Commune located at the North-East of the South America, on the Guianese littoral, Kourou is localized with the mouth of sound river éponyme. Behind the city four mounts are: Carapa, Pariacabo, the mountain Coffee and the Lombard mountain. It is strewn with three lakes: wood Devil, the Marie-Claire, and Chaudat Wood. The surroundings are a mixture of Savane dry and flooded (the latter called pripri ), as well as Tropical forest. It is localized to 60 km in the North-West of the prefecture of the department, Cayenne.

Long sand beaches border the coast Atlantique; they are delimited in north by Mangrove S and in the south by the river Kourou. These beaches are not directed north-western as towards the remainder of the littoral (except for that with the mouth of the Mahury) because of the rocks of the Point of the Rocks. The remainder of the coast, like elsewhere in Amazonia, sees a constant contribution of sediments due to the many Amazonian rivers (of which water are brown besides for this same reason), especially of the the Amazon itself. The sediments accumulate on the coast, formant of long extents of vase which are colonized by the Palétuvier S, formant of the mangroves; the extents of vase and the mangroves move back and advance according to the storms of the rain season, the Marée S, the Houle S, and the new contributions of sediments. The configuration of the coast thus changes year by year.

Kourou, having the port nearest, is the starting point of the excursions to the islands of the Hello, located at three kilometers of the coast.

Climate

The Climate of Kourou equatorial east wet with alternation of dry and wet seasons: the small rain season of mid-December at March, the small season dries in March, the great rain season of at the end of March at July, and the great dry season of July mid-December. Average annual pluviometry is of: 3000 mm, and the insolation can reach them: 2200 hours annual, even more. The year 2003 was very dry in Guyana and Amazonia in general; the rain season was defective but the posterior years transfer a pluviometry in the average, decreasing the effects of the dryness.

The average Température is of 26°C (with a minimum of approximately 18° and a maximum of 36°, even more during the season dries). The average moisture oscillates between 80 and 90%; it varies from 75 to 98% during the rain season. During the season it dries is approximately 50% at the beginning of afternoon and of 100% early the morning towards 6:00 the winds are not violent one there, like elsewhere in Guyana. The maximum speed ever recorded by the weather station of the CSG since its installation in 1968 is of 83 km/h (either 23 m/s),

The mangroves and the extents of vase shelter many species of Crustacé S, of which many varieties of Crevette S, whose fishing is an important industry on all the Guianese coast. They shelter also Crabe S, black urubus, brushes (snow-covered brushes, large brushes and several other species), Héron S (will hérons bihoreaux…), of the red Ibis and white Ibis S, of the spatulas dew, the Sandpiper X. The Palétuvier S most often met are those of the kinds Avicennia ( Avicennia germinans ), Rhizophora ( Rhizophora mangrove and Rhizophora racemosa ), and Laguncularia ( Laguncularia racemosa ).

One can see manatees of the Caribbean in the neighborhoods of the Point of the Rocks at the time of the high tide.

Downtown one finds especially common iguanas, Lézard S, caimans in the lakes, sometimes of the rattlesnakes, the grass snake S, and many species of tortoise as well as birds (of which the ibis white, often present on banks of the lakes).

The city being formerly entirely surrounded of mangroves and being built on a marsh, from time to time it is seen invaded butterflies of ash, which their wings blanchâtres release a fine irritant dust very which can start strong allergic reactions , called Papillonite. When these clouds of butterflies appear, one extinguishes all public lighting not to attract them on the city. There are only the red lamps which do not attract them. One then lights strong projectors on a basin or a lake to drown the butterflies there. The episodes of papillonite are much less frequent since the legionaries cut down many mangroves of the mangroves.

History

The history of Kourou is quite long and begins thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. The Amerindians having an oral culture, it is practically impossible to recall the events former to colonization. Even after, the area being colonized and being given up several times throughout its history, the sources remain sparse, fragmentary and are contradicted sometimes. The rare researchers studying the history of the area are pressed on the archaeological excavations and the few documents of time, of which accounts of voyage and official documents compiled for the majority in remote the Metropolis .

Period précolombienne

Beginnings of colonization

In 1500, the Spanish explorer Vicente Yañez Pinzon skirts the Guianese coasts and passes in front of the current site of Kourou.

In 1645 two brothers capuchins settles in Kourou with a servant. The brothers serve mediators with the Amerindian Palikour, which are then in war against the French. This year, the small establishment is attacked by warriors palikours. The fort of Cépérou to Cayenne has only 25 men; when the reinforcements (strong of 40 men) of the Compagnie of Rouen of the sior Poncet de Brétigny arrive, the small Guianese colony is almost entirely decimated. Most of the survivors leave to the islands the Hello, uninhabited and at the time still known under the name of islands of the Devil , but 16 of them, whose two brothers capuchins, for reasons now unknown, decide to settle with the Mahury. They are massacred by the Amerindians six weeks later; there are only two survivors, of the young people who take refuge in strong Cépérou, there are found by Amerindians eleven days after the massacre and treated well. One of them, called The Vintager , is used later as interpreter between the White and the Amerindians.

In February 1665 the ship Suzanne , under the command of the captain Baron of the Company of equinoctial France, arrives at Cayenne. The colony counts then: 1060 inhabitants including the small garrison, 40 white women and 200 slaves. The French, then in peace with the Amerindians, build a station with Caourou (Kourou) and of the forts with Sinnamary and Camoripo (today the Money Mountain) with the mouth of the Oyapock.

January 26th, 1666 1, the king of France declares the war with the English; the small colony of Guyana, slightly populated and badly defended, is under the threat of attacks of the English and the Dutchmen, both having close colonies.

In 1744, the physicist and geographer Condamine, charged to lead a forwarding to Peru in order to measure the length of an arc of meridian line of a degree near the equator, passes by the area kouroucian and gives her name to the one of the mounts behind Kourou, before joining Cayenne.

The mission Jesuit

The father Jesuit Pierre Aime Lombard, born with Lyon in 1678, share for Cayenne on May 4th, 1709 1 after having taught humanities in France; it unloads in Cayenne on June 12th and pronounces its wishes in 1711 there. It becomes, with the father Simon Ramette, one of the most important characters of the colony.

The two men decide to évangéliser the Amerindians; they start to learn the kali' Na, language of the tribe of the same name, with a dictionary and a book on the grammar of this language. They install their small mission on Carouabo beside an important Amerindian village. The first contact is, according to Lombard, painful ; they hardly advance in their work for eight month.

They change method then: choosing the Amerindians whom they judged being more intelligent , they inform them in their own language, the kali' Na. The fathers Jesuits make baptize fifteen Kali' Na with the church Saint Nicolas of Cayenne in December 1710, in large pump (the governor, Rémy Guillouet d' Orvilliers, as well as important officers, are the witnesses). This strategy meets more success, since the following year 80 Kali' Na require to be baptized. In 1730 the Gaspard father of Molard, coadjutor and architect, built a very large building including two infirmaries (for the women, another for the men), to look after there the Amerindians, of which many farmers and workmen. On the way The Diligent one passes in front of a ship English corsair but does not stop to give him the news of peace. January 31st a corsair English, perhaps the very one, attacks the small hamlet of Kourou at six o'clock in the morning. The Amerindians flee, allowing the English to plunder the church, the Presbytère, and some houses. The Amerindians return with rifles a little later killing a corsair and making beat a retreat the others. The detachment sent returns to Cayenne on February 7th with a missionary to naked half which rents the courage of the Amerindians and request of the weapons and ammunition for better defending Kourou.

Having lost most of its grounds in America, the French government decides to send a great forwarding in Guyana. The idea comes from Brûletout de Préfontaine, which speaks about it with Choiseul, Minister for the navy. Préfontaine wanted to send a hundred emigrants to it; Choiseul increases this number with: 15000 then Guyana only had: 7635 inhabitants. It will be the only massive attempt at voluntary colonization of Guyana.

Approximately: 9000 with: 12000 people, tried by the legends of the Eldorado conveyed by the propaganda of the government, unload in Kourou, after long and difficult crossing 51 days. The selected wearing of departure are Rochefort, Le Havre and Marseilles; the first convoy leaves Rochefort in October 1763 and arrives at Kourou on December 20th. The others follow it shortly after. From December 1763 in February 1765 unload approximately: 9000 colonists.

They come from all Europe: there are Rhénans, Prussian , Autrichiens, Suisse S, Dutch, Belgian , of the French (of which many Alsaciens), and even the Acadie NS of the French colonies of North America. They are craftsmen, peasants and even priests (the only officially allowed religion being Catholicism). These people of North unload in Amazonia in full small rain season, with the mouths of the Kourou and the Sinnamary, and the new governor of Guyana is the knight Etienne François Turgot, brother of the intendant and physiocrat him too.

The living conditions being very bad, mainly because of the marshes and badly prepared forwarding (there were only small huts or tents in fabric to be used as shelter and the vivres périmèrent quickly because of the climate), one estimates that the three quarters of the colonists are decimated in little time by the fevers and other diseases. On: 12000 colonists, by including the soldiers and the births on the Guianese ground: 7000 die before October 1st, 1765 1 and of 2 with: 3000 are repatriated. This very high death rate does not take into account the slaves and the Amerindians died because of the diseases which Europeans theirs would have transmitted.

Jacques-François Artur, the doctor of the king in Guyana of 1738 to 1771, tells to look after, in all the colony, especially of small the Fièvre S not identified considered to be benign, of pneumonias , of hepatic evils (the Alcoholism being a serious problem in all the layers of the Guianese company), of the skin diseases (irritants being numerous in the tropics), and in Kourou especially of the Paludism (which remains still today a problem in the tropical climates). The Yellow fever carries it also many colonists, as well as the Petite pox, the Typhoïde, the Typhus and the Dysenterie.

Some take refuge with the islands of the Hello (from where their name; front, they named the islands of the Devil ). The islands, thanks to the quasi-permanent Trade wind S, almost do not have Moustique S, carrying diseases. These islands are also used as unloading for the ships coming from France, because the mouth of the Kourou does not allow those having a too strong draft to enter there.

Very few colonists choose to remain in Guyana, one estimates this number at only: 1800.

The notorious disaster of this forwarding leads in France to a scandal which is concluded by the édiction from letters patent in 1767, of which one of measurements is the imprisonment of the Chanvalon intendant in various fortresses of France (Bastille, Mont Saint Michel…), and the Exile of Turgot. Brûletout de Préfontaine, as for him, is installed on its grounds in Kourou.

The failure of forwarding nourished the black legend of Guyana. The country takes the nickname of Green hell , of which it tries still today to get rid and who was used as argument for the construction of the Bagne. No other colonization “of mass” was never tried, the policies of the 19th century being it is true rounds towards Africa and Asia, and this in a tactical fight with England. Also, the white population was always very weak compared to that of the slaves. It is only in the middle of with the abolition of slavery, and the installation of the bagne, that the population increases.

Between forwarding and the bagne

From 1795 to 1798 one sends refractory priests and political opponents (of which Billaud-Game preserve, Collot d' Herbois, Bored-Marbois, Pichegru, Barère…) in Guyana, first in Counamama, place of cursed forwarding, and seconds with Sinnamary. It is the beginning of the bagne: 331 people are sent in Guyana, from which 172 die there, 132 are repatriated, and 25 escape.

There was a small episode curious at the beginning about the Années 1820: the Laussat governor, formerly colonial prefect of the Louisiana, makes come from this area 20 Americans, resulting from seven families of Irish origin ; they unload on November 18th, 1821 1. It renames a little place of the area of Kourou Laussatdelphie in its honor; it is about Ollivier savanna on the Passoura split, in the north of the current city. Colonists Irish refuse to become farmers (Laussat will say that they missed agricultural vocation) and are repatriated in Louisiana one year later. Laussat will make in the same way with Chinese and Malais sent to Kaw to make there cultivate The, project which will be also balanced by a failure.

At the time the establishments in the west of Kourou, Sinnamary, Iracoubo, except for Mana, is under the control of the Sœurs of Saint-Joseph of Cluny and sheltered dwellings (plantations) from two to five people devoting itself to the breeding and the food crops. Kourou was one of the only establishments having a borough where the inhabitants could gather for festivals or other events; this one is located at the port of Kourou, a little before the mouth of the Kourou and the Point of the Rocks. The channel of Kourou east built to improve goods transport and the communication enters the dwellings, often isolated by the marshes or mud during the rain season.

The eruption of the Mountain Peeled in 1902 pushes a great number of refugees to be settled elsewhere, reviving the hopes to repopulate Guyana, always much less populated than the French West Indies. Notable Guianese envisages to lodge 900 farmers inhabitant of Martinique; the governor was more ambitious, while envisaging: 18000 in the area of Kourou. Finally, only 572 choose to settle in Guyana, with Montjoly (with ten kilometers of Cayenne); 317 individually and 255 in convoy organized by the government. Immigrant of St Lucia, Dominique, Lebanon, China, and Indonesia settle elsewhere in Guyana of small number.

The bagne

Kourou is used as place of deportation: it is a penitentiary with agricultural vocation, which revives the small hamlet.

The penitentiary of Kourou, located on the Point of the Rocks, is inaugurated in 1856. Three bagnes forest depend on it, with Pariacabo (today the industrial park), and the places known as Léandre and three Carbet S . A building site in the district of Passoura occupies thirty convicts. There was a project of bagne for women on the islet the Father, in the north of Kourou, which was never carried out.

The farm of Kourou produces Huile of coconut and shelters a pigsty of 200 Porc S, which is mainly used to vary the food given to the convicts and with the personnel penitentiary because one could not make send meat since the metropolis.

The buildings devoted to the bagne, in the district of the Rocks, are demolished shortly after the closing of this one and are replaced by the Hotel of the Rocks. The last vestiges of this part of the history of the city are the Dreyfus Tower (used to communicate with the islands in Code Morse), the ruins of the furnace of the bagne (now private property, but visible in a small dead end not far from the tower), and a small fountain close to the palm trees moucayas.

Off Kourou, there were bagnes with the islands of the Hello, open in 1852, when they were indicated like such. The first deportees arrived there in April 1862.

A law closes the bagne in 1938, putting a term at transport of prisoners, but it was truly closed only in 1946, and very last repatriations will be done only in 1953.

The installation of the Guianese Space center and the Foreign legion

See also: Guianese Space center, 3rd foreign regiment of infantry, 3^e foreign regiment of infantry

April 16th, 1964 1, the French government decides to install a space base in Guyana, and it is with the construction of the base, in 1965 that Kourou, hitherto simple village, will become a true city, the needs for the Guianese Space center (CSG) causing a vigorous population growth.

Until there, Kourou had been divided into two distinct parts: borough (200 inhabitants), today streets more close to the marina almost to the mouth of the Kourou, and plains called savanna and it handle , which sheltered 400 people. Those went to the borough only the market days or need. The borough was the center of the community: the place of worship (the church Holy-Catherine), and the market were at it, and the borough was the gathering point at the time of the festivals, of which the Carnaval. The children living savanna were to go to foot to the school to the borough; a two hours way the morning and two the evening. A relative gave them to eat midday.

The village knew the electricity only in 1948 and the Réfrigérateur S in the years 1955-1960; the meat (of local production) and the fish (of the Kourou or the ocean) then were salted or smoked to prevent that they did not rot.

The CSG itself is built on the site of a village called Malmanoury and extends on 30 km starting from left bank from the Kourou and penetrates, in what was the virgin forest, on a distance of 10 km. Hundred five families (651 people) are expropriées their grounds to make place for the CSG and are rehoused in residences downtown. To build the base one engages thousands of workmen as of the first phase of construction, of 1965 to 1970. Much settles then in Guyana, especially in the area kouroucian. In 1976 them: 1016 people working on the site included/understood, with share of the Guianeses, 330 South-Americans (Colombia NS, Brésil iens, Surinam iens…), 206 Europeans, and 72 West-Indian (primarily of Martinique and Guadeloupe). One builds, for these people like for the employees of the CSG (engineers, astronomers…) several small districts of apartment buildings of four or five stages, close to the beach: Simarouba, Diamond, place of Europe… In Simarouba one finds the cinema of the city and many small shops.

The space center is inaugurated with the launching of the sounding rocket Veronique on April 9th, 1968 1.

Surgical the Médico Center of Kourou (CMCK), under the aegis of the the French Red Cross, is present not far from Simarouba since 1965, when it is built to look after the inhabitants of the city in full expansion. There are three hospitals in Guyana, in Kourou, in Cayenne, and St-Laurent; in the other communes, the care is ensured by health centres which, in particular for the isolated communes, send the most serious patients in the helicopter to the large hospitals of the littoral. The industrial port of Pariacabo is also built for the deliveries of hardware requirement to the construction of the rockets, the wearing of Cayenne not being well equipped and the roads impracticable with doors and cumbersome loads. The station of water treatment of Kourou, the only one in Guyana to respect the European standards, is built in 1965.

The 3 {{E}} foreign regiment of infantry, the regiment more decorated with the Foreign legion, is present at the Forget district of Kourou since the year 1973, date of its transfer since Diégo Suarez to Madagascar. Approximately 600 men, including 280 permanent legionaries, compose this regiment specialized in the combat in Equatorial forest. The unit actively prepared the installation of the CSG and has like main mission of ensuring its monitoring of it. It takes part regularly in the operations of dismantling of clandestine sites of Orpaillage. The 2nd company of the unit is committed within the framework of the Opération Carbet, within the French battalion of the temporary multinational force in Haiti.

Clashes opposed the legionaries protecting the space center to the inhabitants from Kourou in 1985 and 2006.

Demography

At the time of the last census in 1999, the population rose with: 19170 inhabitants, all confused origins.

The coexistence between the inhabitants of Kourou and in Guyana in general is not always peaceful. The rate of flights violent one with weapon is of 40% in the department, which easily exceeds the rates of other offenses compared with the metropolis and the other DOM-TOM. The rate of attacks to the physical integrity reached there 17 facts for: 1000 inhabitants whereas it is to the maximum of 11,7% in Île-de-France, for example. The tradesmen of Chinese origin, in particular, are often victims of burglings in their stores.

Administration

The town hall of Kourou is located between the avenue of the Rocks and the small alley of the Vat. The barracks of police force is located behind the town hall and the barracks of the firemen is close to the port, with the Old Borough, on the Charles-of-Gaulle avenue.

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Economy

In first half of the 19th century one sees the establishment of Coton neries on the highlands of Kourou (like in Sinnamary, on the island of Cayenne, the Oyapock and with Macouria, where this plant flowers best). On the other hand, the Roucou, speciality from colonial Guyana, did not find there success, being cultivated especially on with Kaw, Approuague, and in Montsinéry. It was also the case for the culture of the Sucre, which was limited mainly to the east of the littoral. This extreme dependence of all the colony on three, sometimes two, cultures made it very dependant on the fluctuations of the market; thus, when the price of cotton dropped, the area of Kourou was economically weakened. It was the case as from 1844, when the small colony could not compete with any more the enormous production of the the United States, inter alia. The colony in general lived an agricultural crisis of 1830 to 1855. The economy of Guyana rested primarily on the production or the culture of a product at the same time, each one failing early or late, plunging Guianese in misery until following monoculture: Tobacco, Cotton, Sugar, Roucou, Balata, bois de rose, Rum, Banane… followed one another.

Gold rush, which started in 1855 and finishes only at the end of the Second world war, destroyed almost entirely the agricultural activity in Kourou and in Guyana in general. The price collapse of cotton, almost the monoculture of the colony, and the abolition of slavery had already enormously impoverished it. The colony depends almost entirely on the gold, whose production reaches a maximum of almost: 3800 kilos per annum on average in the decade going from 1904 to 1914. The value of gold exports compared to total exports reaches an average record of 96% of 1884 to 1903. Kourou and all the other villages and cities of Guyana emptied almost all their men except for oldest, young people and the disabled person. The Guianese economy also suffers from the rupture of the commercial links with the metropolis during the war.

The establishment, after the war, of an experimental farm with Pariacabo (today the industrial park) using modern technologies, failed because it was difficult to train the Guianese farmers with the new machines and techniques. The experiment was cancelled in 1957 due to lack of budget.

The Guianese Space center is established there since 1965. It is of this site that are launched all the fused ARIANE, and from here 2008 the Russian Soyuz as well as the small Italian launcher Vega. The CSG is more the large company of Guyana. She is regarded as engine economy of the department: in 1990, it counted for 49,8% of the total production of Guyana and 28,3% of GDP; a fifth of the population saw space industry, that is to say: 22800 people. Guyana sees itself in the same economic situation as for the colonial period: the production is almost entirely limited to the space one.

Importance of CSG and of Kourou in general is so large that the close cities, whose Sinnamary, Macouria and Roura, of small villages in 1965, enormously developed since, in particular Sinnamary, where many employees of the space base live. The economic impulse of the space center developed the west and centers Guianese littoral, is being declining since the abolition of slavery.

The economic activity caused by the CSG attracts many immigrants of the area fleeing of the economic disorders or the war in their countries of origin, of which the Haiti ens, most (they will be: 13457 in all the department in 1985). The estimate of the population of Brazilian origin is more difficult because of the many clandestine immigrants; one counted some officially: 5300 in 1985. Also several thousands will come from Chinese in the department (already 329 in 1977), and from the thousands of refugees Hmong of the Laos fleeing the war (: 1000 people with Javouhey close to Mana and Cacao close to Roura). During the war in Surinam one finds: 10000 Surinamiens in the area of Mana and the St. Lawrence, especially in refugee camps. The majority will turn over on their premises at the time of the Paix. The West-Indian population, as for it, increases of almost: 3000 people. One also counts: 13400 Subways in 1990, the greatest part installed in Kourou. So in 1961 Guyana counted: 33295 inhabitants, in 1990 this number climbs with: 114678 and in 1999 one counts some: 157213. This spectacular rise is almost entirely due to the establishment of the CSG in the department.

Transport

Kourou is to approximately 65 km in the west of Cayenne and to 200 km in the East of St-Laurent.

There does not exist any network of Public transport in Kourou (because of the size of the commune); downtown Kourouciens move especially in Vélo, then in Voiture or Moto. To go apart from Kourou the private individuals not having personal means of transport are constrained to use an abstract service shuttle, locally named “taxi Co” (for shared taxis).

The Trunk road 1, two-track, connects the coastal big cities. It was deviated more far from the coast to circumvent the CSG and includes/understands a bridge on the river Kourou. This last was open on December 25th, 1968, the crossing of the river for Cayenne being done before thanks to a vat located at the Guatemala locality.

There is a Aérodrome with a track in the enclosure of the CSG, serving small Avion S, primarily of the amateurs of the local flying-club, and tourist flights in light Hélicoptère or planes.

Teaching

One finds several elementary schools and secondaries there, as well as a municipal Crèche and a IUT of Electronic engineering. There are six school complexes (Olivier-Compass, Michel-Lohier, Eustase-Rimane, Emile-Nézès, Raymond-Cress, Olive-Palmot and Solange-Patient), three Collège S (Henri-Agarande, Victor-Schœlcher and Omeba-Tobo), and two Lycée S (Gaston-Monnerville and Élie-Beaver).

Culture

The media library, or cultural pole , of the city, located on southern bank of the lake Chaudat Wood, the municipal Bibliothèque shelters, a small room of cinema, a room of data processing and a room for exposures of art, as of many rooms where courses for children and adults proceed. There exists also a small paying associative library located behind the town hall, beside the barracks of police force.

Kourou has small a Cinéma of two rooms, Urania, with the Simarouba district.

Festivals

More the cultural great event of the year is the Vaval , word creole indicating the Carnaval. Each Sunday for one month before the day of Vaval, one can see large processions passing on the avenue of the Rocks. The very same day from Vaval several hundreds of people of all Guyana will see the large parade to Kourou, which lasts three hours or more. All the city goes there: the women are there generally dancers or Touloulou S , the men dance or play of an musical instrument, and the children disguise themselves as small imps or play of an instrument (generally of the Tambour S out of plastic). Incidentally, in Kourou one elects the Prince Vaval , while the Cayennais elect the King Vaval ; those animate part of the parade in their respective cities.

Smaller but nevertheless important, the employers' festival of Kourou proceeds the November 25th, the owner of the city being holy Catherine Labouré. In this day, small a Fun fair is installed close to the place of the market, with the Old Borough, and the children there will play all the day.

A few weeks before Christmas is held the market of Christmas on the place of the Parvis of the media library.

Sport

The Stage Chaudat Wood, of: 4000 places, is on northern bank of the lake éponyme with a camp of drive at side. Also on banks, one finds the public Piscine of the city, the courts of Tennis and a Boulodrome. In north one finds the horse Club beside the lake Bois Devil. There are also several teams of water sports, of Martial arts, Athlétisme…

The teams of sport of Kourou take the name of Geldar ; there are sections of Escrime, of Handball, Volleyball and Football. The section of foot, ASC Geldar, gained the Coupe of the DOM (1-0 against the ACE Sada of Mayotte) in 2005.

There exist several small competitions being held downtown: in October, two days of races in Dugout with the sea, departure and end on the beach of Kourou, and in March the Marathon of Space.

Worships

The majority of Kourouciens practitioners are catholic; their place of worship is the church Holy-Catherine, located on the Charles-of-Gaulle avenue at the Old Borough.

Appendices

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