Prunier

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This is Prunier, a famous seafood restaurant in the chichi Sixteenth (arrondissement) of Paris. It is best known as one of the restaurants that Ernest Hemingway and his pals liked to frequent, when he had money enough or when others invited him.

The original Prunier seafood restaurant is near the Madeleine, and still stands, although it was purchased by Jean-Claude Goumard in 1992 and is now called simply Goumard. Alfred and Catherine Prunier opened the second restaurant, shown here, in 1924, and it seems to have retained much of the original style. It's not clear which of the two Pruniers Hemingway & Co. preferred, but I think it was this one, off the avenue Victor Hugo.

I've never been here myself, since I'm not a big seafood fan (fish, maybe, but not other creepy-crawly things), and since the decor reminds me a bit of Captain Nemo's submarine lair.

Photographed on July 23, 2008.