I broke down and bought some of Levenger's new paper for Circa notebooks. They sold awful paper in the past but have apparently changed course.
The new Rhodia paper is sold in Circa notebooks that go for $26. In two's they cost $22 each. I bought only the Rhodia paper itself to use in my leather Circa notebook. A pack of 300 sheets costs $41.
This paper is incredible! It's the paper that fountain pens have wishing for all their lives. It's so thick it almost doesn't seem like paper. You can easily write on both sides with no danger of show-through. But you have to feel this paper to understand how smooth it is. It's like touching an ivory piano key.
And the joy of putting ink on this paper! I was able to lay down the finest line I've ever seen my pens produce. Ink perfection. The finished page looks like a hi-def version of normal fountain-pen writing. It's gorgeous! So precise! I immediately found myself writing just for the joy of it. The pen glides across the paper.
And why is it so wonderful? Because it (like Rhodia) is made by the goddess of paper, Clairefontaine! This is the same paper I use in my other notebooks. I can't speak too highly of it.
Because it has that great column on the left (called "annotation grid", for the formal-minded) it makes a perfect scene book. I can't wait to use it for new scenes. Jot a header on the left and put your notes on the right -- it's simple to view and makes it much easier to locate a particular note.
I could not be more pleased. Here is a link to the Rhodia notebooks. They'll do for starters. And then you can buy a leather notebook after you fall in love with the paper. (Note: this paper is only perfect for fountain pens, gel pens and liquid-ink pens. If you're a ballpoint lover, this is not the paper for you.)
Make sure you don't buy their dogawful, standard paper (which I'm not even sure they still sell). They should be ashamed that they ever sold it. It sucked the ink out of fountain pens and spread it all over the place. You want the Rhodia notebooks or Rhodia refills. And here's a link to the paper refills if you've already got a Circa notebook. Good stuff!
