centre ville, city centre, centro città, Stadtmitte....

On the road in Europe, the words in the post title, and similar expressions in other languages, direct you to the middle of town. With luck, you'll find a parking space, "facilities," old buildings to stare at, carved doors and doorways, towers and turrets, and cafés and restaurants with outdoor tables. And inevitably, a cathedral, a residence, a basilica, a chapel, reminding you that an esthetic experience  also has a spiritual dimension.
Frequently the cafés and such are to one side or the other of the great building, or behind it, and you get to focus on  the parts of the architecture that hold the building up.

Often, the tired and thirsty traveler will see spires, towers, from a distance, a reminder that food and drink and shopping are not far. Once refreshed, it's only polite to step inside the exalted building and marvel at the style of the interior, whether austere or embellished, the crafts and sensibility of centuries past are unsurpassed.

When I'm home in New York, probably because I have one of those faces, I'm the one picked out of a crowd to give directions. Which I do, cheerfully and accurately, and working in the opportunity to practice a few more useful phrases when I can. But ask me for the city center? Just about wherever you are around here, you're in it! And that takes some 'splainin' indeed.

All this leads me to the memory of a clear day when I was coming up Madison Avenue on the M1 bus, sitting on the left and staring moodily out the window, and the bus slowed in back of St Patrick's Cathedral  - it fronts on Fifth Avenue - presenting me with a glorious view of flying buttresses. You wouldn't get a nicer look at flying buttresses anywhere, I thought - well, Bourges, but still - and I exclaimed in delight "Centre ville!" Apparently many of the passengers were visitors, because necks craned, heads nodded, cameras clicked, and there were an unusual number of smiles.

A closing thought - Fifth Avenue is also graced by the presence of Temple Emmanuel, the largest synagogue in the world. Visitors from countries where neither Christianity nor Judaism are part of the culture often mistake the beautiful temple for Saint Patrick's, and take pictures of themselves standing in front of it. I'm sure there are smiles in Heaven when this happens. After all, Omnipresence is Omnipresence in whatever age and whatever language.

This is a street view of the front of Saint Patrick's - the scaffolding is because of mandatory pointing up the masonry work, revêtement as they say, so the building is obscured. But spiritual comfort remains available on social media.

12 comments:

  1. Funny because London doesn't really have a proper center so to speak and everyone lives in their own universe and they are the center of that.... I think that is also why a lot of Asian tourists like my mother never got a grips with London roads not because of the architect Wren but because they didn't know where everyone was supposed to end up I am also afraid that asks trumped the church as a ny landmark!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well, the 9/11 memorial will soon be open to the general public, and that will mean a shift downtown as people head for the bottom of Manhattan to see it. As they should. Right now it's just open for families of the lost and survivors.

      When I started visiting France there were "centre ville" signs pointing at the direction of Paris out on the roads. Haven't seen any of those in a long time.

      Delete
  2. Hello:

    Where indeed shall 'Centre Ville' be found? And such is the problem in most towns or cities of any size. Recently we toured Milan on foot and by tram, guided by our Italian friends, and it seemed we walked or rode for miles always to be told, even though the cathedral was far from sight, that we were still in the centre! An international problem, we think!!

    Incidentally/by the way/as it happens/perhaps of interest, Budapest has the largest synagogue in Europe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always thought the best part of the cathedral in Milan was the roof, anyway, because not only is it visible from everywhere, but if one does manage to find the building, one can climb up and walk/clamber all over the roof.

      The Dohany synagogue is the second largest in the world, as it happens etc. What's amazing is its age: it was built in the 1800's at a time when most Eastern European synagogues were hidden down alleys, behind buildings... What optimism.

      Delete
  3. I am so envious of you living in New York, it's my favorite, How funny my husband has one of the faces too, wonder what makes one of the faces a face to ask, Must be friendly and kind and yet intelligent. I on other hand have one of those faces that look perenially grumpy, people call out all the time: "It's never going to happen!" and 'Cheers up!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Friendly? Kind? Intell-- perhaps more like "cannot run fast" and "was raised by people who didn't make scenes."

      Delete
  4. Wonderful photos! I did not know about the Temple on Fifth. I always go to the 9 am service at St Thomas on fifth when I am in NYC on a Sunday, having a weakness for boys and men choirs. "Center of town" here in New England generally involves a lovely green and a spired white church.

    I like NYC much better than Boston. No one has ever given me directions in Boston, which has the most confusing streets; if you try to go around the block, you could end up in Cambridge. I missed Kenny Warner in NY (again) last week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi, Lane, I think the reason people are chary of giving information in Boston/area is because they don't know either. Or because, on the other side of the Broadway bridge, they were raised not to give information.

      New Yorkers' favorite topic is directing you how to get somewhere. Sometimes you could have been there already by the time we stop giving you alternate routes.

      Delete
    2. Werner, btw.

      I just love how I can stand any where looking mildly perplexed and a New Yorker will ask if need help/directions, usually throwing in some restaurant advice. Good advice!

      Delete
  5. We live in a small city, which is bilingual, and so we have centreville for sure! But really, downtown is simply two very long streets and if I had to pick one spot I would send them to our hotel du ville, which is our city hall!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Wendy, that's delightful! I was standing in front of our little library out east, chatting with a friend, when a car pulled up bad asked how to get to our town. "You're here," I replied. "No, I meant the downtown part," he persisted. "Well," I said, feeling like a local character, "this here's the library, and the grocery store's over there and the post office is right next to the grocery. And well, that's about it." He shook his head and drove off very fast, and I hoped that our cop pulled him over for speeding.

      Delete
  6. I always thought the center was Central Park. It's funny because last time we were in NYC three people, three, asked Hunter with a dark tan, bright orange shirt, and bitchy resting face for directions. I think he was just willing to look them in the eye...homeless people always ask him for a hand out for the same reason. Downtown Knoxville is Market Square.

    ReplyDelete

As Alice Roosevelt Longworth said, if you've got anything bad to say, sit next to me! No, really, please remember to be kind, and don't say anything fred's mother would not approve of (Diner's mom didn't approve of anything. Including fred.)
Wellfedfred and the Whining Diner reserve the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice if we find:
1. Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam
2. Comments including profanity or objectionable language
3. Comments containing concepts that could be deemed offensive
4. Comments that attack a person individually
and since there's been a flood of spam lately, we're trying the Robot thing to see if we can block some spam...