Clairefontaine Neo Deco A5 notebook
Clairefontaine don't half do some good notebooks! I am a long-time lover of their paper, and they do a really excellent range of notebooks to suit pretty much everyone, from pocket notebooks, through to A4. I probably have at least one of every size they produce. They have superb paper and come in at a very decent price point, too.
The size I probably have the least of is A5, which may come as a surprise to some of you, given my penchant for larger notebooks (and lack of penchant for pocket notebooks!), but it's because I have an excess of A4 notebooks by them, and Stu once sent me ~20 pocket-sized ones (which I am still working my way through!).
I really should have more A5 because they do a brilliant range of simple, frill-free notebooks with glorious covers. This beauty is in their Neo Deco range and is stunning. There are several cover designs in the range and all of them are amazing.
There are 48 pages (96 sides) of 90 gsm brushed vellum ivory paper and the notebook spine is sewn, so the book will lie completely flat without needing any brutality. The paper is lined at 8 mm ruling, with a top margin of 17 mm and a bottom margin the same. As I said, this is a no-frills notebook, so there's no ribbon marker, pocket in the cover, page-numbering, table of contents etc, just 96 sides of lined paper.
But what paper!
I know. I know!! We go on and on about Clairefontaine paper (well, I do...). But it really is the best for me. I find it incredibly smooth to write on (perhaps a little too smooth if you're a graphite-lover) and the paper is completely fountain-pen friendly. Ink doesn't feather or bleed-through/show-through. Drying times are slightly quicker than Tomoe River, but not so long it risks being a smudgy mess.
My only gripe with the Neo Deco books (apart from being almost too nice to actually use), is that the ivory paper is a touch too yellow for me. I prefer their white paper, but this is a personal preference. It's certainly not a big enough niggle to stop me using them!
At just £6.50 a pop, these really are beautiful notebooks with amazing paper. They're smart enough to use for work, too. See the full A5 range at the link below.
