Rhodia Fans?

[gatewaysysop]

Are there any other Rhodia fans on this board? I've been using their 'Meeting Book' for about a year or so now at the office and they are fantastic. Being able to use high quality gel ink pens and even pencils on 80g paper has completely and utterly spoiled me.

Not sure any of my colleagues understand my fascination with French stationary that costs about 5x what anything run-of-the-mill goes for, or why I don't just use the freebies available at the office, but there must be some other aficionados on this board.

I've also picked up one of their 'Webnotebooks' in a journal size and plan to give it a try when my current journal has reached capacity (soon!). These babies have 90g paper and I can't wait to try them out.

Who else uses Rhodia and what do you use? Are there other brands I should try that are similar/better?

[gatewaysysop]

Originally Posted by tikidollracer

thanks for the pointer. they look interesting. i've been riding the traditional moleskin for a few years. how do these compare? thanks,

-SM-

I have sadly found that many Moleskine products are turning up as made in China, rather than Italy, which was very disheartening. Not because I think the quality is worlds apart or anything, I'm sure it's passable, but for the premium that is charged for the name.

Funny that you mentioned it, because my disappointment with Moleskine is what got me to seek out other brands and ultimately led me to Rhodia.

Rhodia is made in France and all the products I use are still marked as such. That being the case, I'm willing to pay the premium, simple as that. I'm not an anti-Asia bigot, hell most of my pens are made in Japan, I just don't have confidence that formerly-Italian-now-Chinese stationary is on-par with real Italian or French-made stuff. Might change that view someday, but not yet.

Rhodia stuff is pricey, but it delivers. Best paper I have ever written on, bar none. To use a high quality gel ink pen, even in .4mm, would normally invite scratchy, ugly writing, but not on Rhodia paper. In my 80g Meeting Book, those fine ink pens glide across the paper like nothing else. I tried using the same pen on a typical yellow notepad from the big box stores and it was painfully scratchy, skipping like crazy and looking like complete crap. The difference was insane.

Stuff like this has made me into a complete pen and stationary snob, as I've said before. Once you try it out, I'd be surprised if you didn't like the Rhodia stuff. One of the few premium brands out there that really, honestly does justify the considerable premium. I can't recommend them enough.