Carnet Clairefontaine

My little battered Clairefontaine carnet definitely stood the test of time but now all of its pages are used up.

It was a delight to use as the pen just seemed to glide over its weight of paper with virtually no "bleedthrough" of ink.

Bleedthrough? That means that each of the 96 pages, made from 48 sheets of doubled and stapled paper, could be fully used with no ghosting of writing showing through from the other side of the page.  I hate it when that happens; I like each new page to be pristine.

Douceur de l'écriture  - Papier velouté - are the marketing descriptions for the product and the paper does have that soft, velvety touch that makes writing a pleasure especially with a fountain pen.

Looking through it now and checking the items noted there the thing that strikes me is just how serviceable it was - contact details, numbers and emails; flight references and booking codes; quotes and books to read; meeting plans, agenda and follow-ups; vocabulary items and even diary style entries in appreciation of a nice meal or restaurant.

Clearly it travelled a lot so perhaps that had to do with its portability, the compact size making it convenient to carry.

It has a larger sibling which is part of Clairefontaine's 1951 Retour aux sources (back to basics) series. I use that one for a different purpose and it's not a daily carry round. I keep it for taking notes on French talks I've attended or drafts of blogposts and with squared pages it's very French...

1951.  Hmm.  Birth year and one of my favourite brands of pastis.

Noteworthy.