The Piste Paul Isnard is a road in French Guiana. It is named after an old gold miner. At the end of the road, two sites were exploited: Citron and Paul Isnard. The former name of the company was CMPI until 1987. During the penitentiary era many former prisoners had to serve the same amount of time as free men than their original sentence (called “doublage” double up in French) but were forbidden to leave French Guiana.

Many of them went to the rain forest to find gold. They used a lot of mercury and worked manually. At the end of 19th century Paul Isnard and other shareholders brought a huge steam engine system in spare part on horse and men back. This machine is still here in the jungle between Citron and Paul Isnard former air strip.

Map: Paul Isnard Track
Map: Paul Isnard Track