This is the large Quo Vadis Habana notebook with the new Raspberry color cover and blank pages. Many, many thanks to Karen at Exaclair for sending me this notebook! It is absolutely fantastic.
In my review of the 2011 Minister Habana I raved about the excellent cover. And now I'm very excited about the Habana notebook with all its excellent features!
The Habana cover has a smooth, leather-like look and feel. The cover is firm enough to write on my lap no problem, yet can flex under pressure:
The cover and pages have elegant rounded corners:
The elastic is color-matched to the cover, and the Quo Vadis emblem is subtly embossed on the lower right corner of the front cover:
There is a ribbon page marker:
And a large pocket inside the back cover:
The book is beautiful and classy-looking. And as if that weren't enough to make an excellent notebook, it gets much, much better: the paper inside is the very best in the world, in my opinion.
The large blank Habana notebooks contain the 90 g, extra white, super-smooth Clairefontaine paper that is a favorite of fountain-pen users and loved by writers everywhere. My pen glides across the page. The paper is so smooth to the touch, it just makes me want to write on it.
The paper is sustainably sourced and PEFC certified.
The paper is acid-free and pH neutral, so it's perfect for archiving. That makes the Habana notebooks excellent for journaling, scrapbooking, art, writing, or anything you want to record and preserve long-term.
This Habana notebook with its blank paper and gorgeous Raspberry cover is officially my favorite notebook now. In fact, it is now my journal. Awhile back I wrote about how I've been neglecting my journal, mostly because of its dated day-per-page. I fell behind for several months, and back-filling so many days was too daunting. I decided after all that I didn't want my journal to be about keeping a detailed record of my days, but more for capturing special moments and memories. The Habana is perfect as a journal: beautiful, a pleasure to write in and hold, and archival quality.
I'm afraid I have a new addiction!!
This notebook is the large size, which measures 6 1/4 by 9 1/4 inches. The Habana notebooks also come in the small size which measures 4 by 6 3/8 inches.
These Habana notebooks with blank pages are available with black, red, raspberry or green covers. Habana notebooks with lined pages are available with black, red, blue or taupe covers. You can purchase Habana notebooks in the US at The Daily Planner, and at these retailers (click for list).
In the UK, the Habana notebooks are slightly different. The paper is ivory instead of white, and the raspberry and green covers are only available in the smaller A6 size. Click here to see the UK Habana collection.
Just a heads-up: the raspberry cover shown on the Quo Vadis websites is a little bit lighter pink than the real-life color of the product. The actual color of the cover is kind of a reddish pink. Raspberry describes the color very well.
I highly recommend the Habana notebooks!
You truly are one lucky woman!! Not to mention that Karen@Exaclair is also very generous!
ReplyDeleteI wonder why the US and Europe have so many differences in their products. Like I mentioned in a comment to a previous post, I bought a small Habana notebook (red cover) in Spain and sadly, I don't like it.
I can understand that some people (including myself) prefer the ivory colour for their journals. But the pages on both the Habana and Memoriae I have are simply too yellow! I don't know if you've already seen the paper on the Rhodia Webbie. It's not white, but it isn't yellow either, and for me, the quality is much better than that of the Habana or the Memoriae.
The Webbie I have is one of the first ones that came out, with the 60gsm, lined pages and the logo on the right lower corner. People that have already tried the new one, with the 90gsm, say it's even better. So I'm guessing I'll be blown away by it when I finally get my paws on it!
I have terrible news for those of us who love the white paper in the Habana notebook: starting in 2011 the US Habanas will have 85g IVORY paper like the Habanas in Europe. This was decided by Exaclair in France to have international continuity for the brand.
ReplyDeleteHere is the notice on Quo Vadis blog:
http://quovadisblog.com/2010/12/15/habana-news/
I think this is a very poor decision and that a lot of US users will be looking for a different notebook. There are already so many ivory-paper notebooks out there, what made Habanas stand out was the ultra-white, thick smooth paper.
That said, 85 g is still fountain-pen friendly, so if you don't mind the ivory paper this would still be more fountain-pen friendly than a Moleskine.