The Parc Amazonien de Guyane covers the whole southern half of French Guiana — more than three million hectares of rainforest, making it the largest national park in France and in the European Union, and part of the biggest block of protected tropical forest anywhere.
There are no roads. The park is reached from the villages on its edges and within it: Saül in the middle, which has an airstrip and the best network of marked forest trails in the territory; Maripasoula and Papaïchton on the Maroni; and Camopi on the Oyapock. Getting there means a light aircraft or days in a pirogue.
The park is unusual in that people live in it. Wayana, Wayampi, Teko and Aluku communities hold rights inside the park and take part in running it, and visits to the inhabited zones are arranged with them. For most travellers the practical way in is Saül, where you can walk for days on trails through primary forest and be back in a village with a bakery at night.