La Brasserie Peret, 75014 Paris

If you like charcuterie and sausages, this is the place for you.  It is a family-owned brasserie and they also own the wine-shop next door, which displays its wares all over the pavement outside, and where the owners are always ready to discuss your wine needs and recommend the appropriate bottle.   Four generations of the family have been in the wine trade and obviously this expertise spills over into the brasserie which has been  named the Best Wine Bistro of the Year and has a very wide selection of  wine from privately owned vineyards:  nearly all by the glass, half-bottle and bottle. The restaurant specialises in food from the Auvergne which is heavy into ham, pates, and sausages of all shapes and sizes.  One of my famous dishes there is stuffed cabbage, which may not sound very appetising,  but is absolutely delicious –  and on my last visit my lunch companion had a hearty choucroute,  while at the next table they were eating lentils and sausage.  There is also a large selection of open-faced sandwiches on big slices of country bread and during the summer a wide range of salads. There is often a plat du jour posted up on the blackboard outside, but no menu of the day.  The dessert menu is limited but all home-made and usually very rich – the chestnut cake with cream is particularly good! As in most Parisian brasseries the tables are quite close together,  although there is also a large heated terrace, but the rooms are always full and can be pretty noisy. The service is efficient and friendly and it is a popular meeting place for the regulars from the 14e. The rue Daguerre is a pedestrian street, almost entirely devoted to food shops,  and it’s well worth a visit just to stroll up and down looking at the incredible displays of vegetables, cheese, cakes and charcuterie as most of the shops have outside counters, several with merchants vociferously hawking their wares! Just around the corner at the top of the street are the Catacombes,  which is an ancient underground cemetery, though I have to admit that I have never been down there as trudging through tunnels full of bones doesn’t appeal to me overmuch…. However there is always a queue to get in, so obviously it’s a popular attraction!