Between 1852 and 1938, over 70,000 convicts were transported to the bagne in French Guiana which finally closed in 1946. Approximately 21,000 convicts were sent to New Caledonia between 1864 and 1924. A complex tension between the role of convict transportation and labour as an integral part of France's colonial project and the inevitable social exclusion produced by this form of incarceration frames the way the two territories can be compared. Unofficial forms of tourism have always taken place in both settlements during and after their operation but it is only recently that serious restoration initiatives have been undertaken and supported by the local community. In French Guiana, these include the transportation camp at Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, the Saint Jean relegation camp and former prison buildings, including the warden's residence, on the Iles du Salut currently under the jurisdiction of the Centre National d'Études Spatiales. In New Caledonia, restoration initiatives in the South Province include a prison museum housed in the former prison bakery; Prony village, a reconstructed site of forced labour; Fort Teremba featuring seasonal light shows and the ruins of the penal colony on the Ile des Pins. Taking these restoration and preservation activities at its starting point, the project considers the former penal settlements as representing a moment of decarceration within a wider global history of punishment, imprisonment and detention. Looking at the delicate process of remembering the bagne, the aim is to consider how penal tourism might focus more directly on questions of decarceration and abolition within a contemporary carceral context. There are several 'moments of decarceration' including institutional reconstruction (space station, tourist facilities), community mobilization (support groups, museum and heritage jobs) and culture industry activity (light shows, convict art exhibitions and tours of ruins) all of which mean analysis of these sites requires a broad and collaborative approach that draws on community participants and international networks of expertise. Tracking the routes and trajectories existing between sites draws greater attention to the carceral past, present and future of a wider human and natural geography. The project will use a cartographic approach to understand the multiple spaces of the bagne and involves presentation of innovative new materials and perspectives to local and global audiences. Archival research skills, ethnographic fieldwork, visual and textual analysis, and theories of framing and spectatorship will also be developed through this process. Fieldwork visits to the two territories, carried out by the PI and PDR, will involve mapping activities using historical visits alongside contemporary routes and itineraries exploring different ways of 'locating' and 'situating' the bagne. To promote this perspective and the wider applicability of the methodological approach a series of maps and a digital photo archive will be produced and made accessible while written outputs including a monograph and two journal articles focus on the (photographic and cartographic) methodologies developed. Public events (activity sessions, symposium and workshops) organized in Nottingham (Galleries of Justice, Nottingham Contemporary) will bring together scholars and heritage stakeholders from the two territories together with UK-based academics, curators and site developers. The project's scholarly outputs will be of interest to academics working in French and Francophone history and culture, postcolonial studies, museum and heritage studies, criminology, visual culture and human geography.