(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)
Clairefontaine were my first introduction to good paper. I found them when I was a student in my freshman undergraduate year, and I used them all through school--though back in those ancient times, I had to order them from Europe. It was worth it. Now? I can get as much Clairefontaine as I want from JetPens. I am limited only by the volume of my house.
The Triomphe A5 Notebook is one of their fabulous middle-of-the-road books, as far as cost and quality go. You can get nicer ones for slightly higher cost, and less fancy ones for very low cost--but this one is the Goldilocks. It is A5 size, with lined, white, acid-free paper. There are 48 sheets at 90gsm, and the heavier weight minimizes ghosting, so you can easily use both sides of those sheets.
At 8mm, I do find the line spacing a bit wide for my comfort, but it's the perfect layout for testing broad, juicy fountain pen nibs, as this paper can happily handle it all. Every pen I tried felt great on this paper, and the medium nib I ultimately chose to write with felt like it was gliding across the page. Only the Sharpie, the laser of pens, dotted through at all.
The cover is cardstock, with minimal branding. The single signature is stitched with thread that runs the whole length of the spine, so the notebook lies flat without any worry about pages coming loose. It feels durable. My Clairefontaine notebooks from college, which were the less expensive staple-stitched ones, were tough enough to last an entire semester of daily use, and this one is considerably stronger than that. This nicer one is still only $12 at JetPens, which is a great price for the quality.
These notebooks are perfect for students, for commonplace books, work notebooks--any use where you need a moderate amount of fabulous paper. It almost makes me sad I don't have classes anymore. Almost.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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