Grocery shopping in French Guiana

As an overseas department (or state) of France, French Guiana has most stores that exist in metropolitain France. It's just getting there that's a little different.

Since there's very little public transportation here, it's necessary to have one's own car. To go grocery shopping, Jack and I first drive through the rain forest for about 7 minutes. (Click on photos to enlarge).

 Some houses have been built along the road...

 Géant is the closest large grocery store from our house. As you can see, it's pretty big.

 We can find pretty much everything we need at Géant. The prices are about 30% higher than in France because everything is imported from Europe. Also, French Guiana is part of the European community which means that it can't trade freely with its neighboring countries in South America... there are European trade quotas, high customs fees and European law requirements and restrictions. This situation has thus created a paradox : people in Guiana are forced to buy their products from Europe at high prices whereas the same products exist in South America at low prices...