The photographer of the French publication Didier Bizet published a photo report on his visit to Crimea on the CNN website, and shared impressions. “I felt that this was certainly a Russian holiday, a Russian country,” he writes.
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“I would say that tourism is ninety-five percent Russian,” notes Bizet. “I have not met any Italians, English or French. I was the only Frenchman in Crimea,” he notes.
“I have not heard any languages other than Russian,” said Bizet. “I expected to see at least something Ukrainian, but I saw a completely Russian Crimea oriented to the West,” he adds.
For example, he met a couple from Moscow who moved to Sevastopol to open their own entertainment business here.
“They decided to come to Crimea because it’s sunny here, because it’s new, because doing business in Moscow is too expensive, Moscow is too cramped,” notes a photographer from France. “They came to Sevastopol without even realizing that it used to be Ukraine.”
The Frenchman also observed a phenomenon in Sevastopol that he called “patriotic tourism.” Dozens of people come to the embankment to look at warships, submarines and feel proud of their country. The photographer was especially struck by the image of a hammer and sickle on a T-shirt with the inscription “USSR” on one of the vacationers.
Bizet called his photo report “Crimea. Holidays the Russian way."