French Guiana is an overseas region located on the northeastern coast of South America, largely covered by tropical rainforest. The ruins of Fort Cépérou, dating from the 17th century, overlook the capital, Cayenne, with its colorful Creole houses and street markets. Shops and cafés surround the main square known as “Place des Palmistes,” which takes its name from the many palm trees that stand there. The suburb of Remire-Montjoly is lined with beaches overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

French Guiana (in Guianese Creole: Lagwiyann) is a unique French overseas collectivity located in South America, bordered to the north by the Atlantic Ocean, bordering Brazil to the southeast and south, and Suriname to the west; it is the smallest territory on the South American continent in terms of both area and population. French Guiana is the only French overseas collectivity of a continental nature. Its powers, identical to those of other regions and departments of France, have been consolidated since 2015 within a single territorial collectivity—the Territorial Collectivity of French Guiana—whose deliberative body is the Assembly of French Guiana.