JulieVikmanis

taconictraveler, thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed. Certainly makes the work of cropping, sorting, straightening, captioning, etc, seem more worthwhile.

Cathinjoetown

Julie,

Depends on the variety of lavender, we drove up to St Girons today to do some shopping and the lavender on two roundabouts was gorgeous. They're sprucing up for the Tour de France in a few days.

Some by our pool may be out sooner than two weeks but the plants we have in a flower bed are way behind.

I think you'll be all right. The Marseille installation should be fun.

JulieVikmanis

Thanks. I feel better already. We leave in about an hour.

Percy

Julie did you have much difficulty in obtaining your Russian Visa

altiva

"What we didn't like was going to the market which coud have been a fantastic experience and finding babushka ladies more or less "guarding" their produce against anyone taking pictures--for no reasonable purpose. Old habits die hard." There is a law in Ukraine which says that people can't be photographed unless they agree to it. If you keep showing your camera into their faces when they refuse, you can be arrested. It's a relatively new law, so it has nothing to do with "old habits". Reading this post, I understood for whose benefit it was created. Those boorish Americans who flash their cameras into people's faces like they are not people but lampposts or buildings, and then depart to do who knows what with these photos and to post them who knows where.

JulieVikmanis

Percy, we had a couple of problems with Russian visas. Since we travel a lot we needed our passports and could not have them gone for the usual amount of time it takes to get a Russian visa "standard" and had to go for expedited service. That cost us over $900 for the two visas working through an expediting company. Husband who was born in Riga Latvia and left at the end of the war was asked to supply proof of his exit which, of course, he does not have. They finally accepted copies of his US citizenship papers showing he had become a citizen when he was 7 years old and showing his birthdates in Riga, etc. After that everything went well. Cannot imagine how tough it must be to try to do all this on your own.

altiva

Though, of course, what to expect from a hard core racist, who posted numerous posts with "The Ukraine" spiel. Note, it's Russia, Italy, France, but always "zier Ukraine", like Ukraine is not a county, but some soty of a cheap province.
I am amazed that the admin allowed the racist rants to last for that long.

altiva

In "zer Ukraine", bad evil "zer Ukrainians" do not pose willingly for a superior American, for her to make fun and sport of. Can you imagine the cheek? It's like they believed they were real human beings, and not from some "zer Ukraine", posing there for superior American tourists. Old habits die hard, these lowly beings from "zer Ukraine" still did not grasp the fact that if a superior American (how many trillions in debt to Chinese?) wants a photo, they must bend backward and pose for the cameras.

JulieVikmanis

altiva, I apologize for offending you. To defend myself, let me say that I was photgraphing the produce not the people. And I ask for permission and do not take pictures if refused. I did, however, find it interesting that the vendors in Kiev, for instance, often refused while those in markets in other countries in my experience have responded positively and even invitingly showing pride in their products--as I would if I had such beautiful and interesting things to display. I take your point on the issue of using the country name. In this case it is definitely my old habit which dies hard. Having always heard my mother refer to Ukraine as "the Ukraine" it was indeed a bias that passed from generation to generation and I must plead guilty to having not adjusted my thinking in tune with the times and the sensivities of the people. Thank you for pointing this out. I assure you that I will address the country correctly from now on. For your part I would appreciate your not assuming that I possess feelings of superiority as an American simply because I wanted to take pictures of beautiful vegetables in a market nor that I would ever make fun or sport of the people who display those beautiful vegetables.

Cathinjoetown

"hard core racist" for referring to Ukraine as The Ukraine????

Someone needs to get a grip and it certainly isn't Julie!

JulieVikmanis

Hi Cathinjoetown, We're back from Marseille and Provence and I'm hoping to do a brief report soon. While everything was beautiful, the lavender wasn't at its peak so I guess I'll just have to go again sometime. The lavender display in Marseille was nice but I oversold myself, adding a zero to the number of lavendar plants in he display--it was 4000 not 40,000, so it wasn't quite as spectacular as I was expecting. Marseille itself, however, was even better than I had hoped. It could become a favorite.

kenav

altiva - Really? Only "Those boorish Americans who flash their cameras into people's faces" Not boorish Brits or boorish Japanese?

thursdaysd - I too preferred Moscow to St. Pete's. Perhaps because the architecture was so different from other places in Europe. However, I would go back to either place in a minute.

I too learned the Cyrillic alphabet before we left. Took a little doing but it was fun. Great to be able to read signs even if it was just a transliteration and didn't know what the word meant. However, some words when you pronounce them correctly can sound like English- as in the word restaurant ("pectopah" in cyrillic spelling but pronounced "restoran"). Definitely helped on the metro.

Cathinjoetown

Julie,

I would love to see your photos. We'd like to get over to Marseille later in the year.

We have two varieties of lavender in our little garden--one was a vivid purple this year and the other, while never as bright, was very washed out. Very unpredictable and unusual summer here in THE Southwest. Hope I can say that without sounding racist!

We also need to chastise the person who wrote, "Salmom Fishing in THE Yemen.."

I promise I'll stop now.