Great products, great service. Will definitely buy again from Goulet

Never disappointed with Goulet Pens or Claire Fontaine. Always great service and great quality.

For the past several years I have been using the Clairefontaine spiral bound A4 notebooks. While the paper quality is excellent, the spiral binding makes it difficult to write on the left side of the page. These clothbound notebooks make it easy to fill the entire page with notes, rather than wasting most of the margin on either side. Along with the excellent paper quality and large page count, these are great for taking complex notes down.

Wonderful. Will definitely be using your company again.

I've used this notebook as daily journal with some tracking. The A4 size is a good match with the 8mm line spacing giving enough room to handle text with a broad or even a stub nib. The paper is the star of the show: no noticeable show through even with a 1.5mm stub, a bright white to show the true color of the ink and a wonderfully smooth surface that lets speciality inks shine. This paper combined with unique inks and a nib I like give me the kind of journaling experience that I got into fountain pens for! The only negative is that the strap is held in by a half round metal tab that causes a bump in the pages when you write over those areas. It can be removed by pushing the tabs through the back cover and replaced for storage when done with notebook. The cover could be nicer but matches the reasonable price point. It lies nearly flat for a notebook of its thickness. I am very happy with it and have purchased a few more.

These are my favorite notebooks for long writing sessions, journaling, anything where I just want to feel that delicious super smooth paper!

First, this notebook is quite heavy in the A4 size. As others have mentioned, the cover is too thin for the weight - ditto for the elastic. I would not describe the cover as a solid hardboard cover. The biggest problem is that the cloth binding holds the pages so tightly that the sheets form a very tight arc. It is extremely uncomfortable to write on one side of the book. What is the point of using Clairefontaine paper if only one side can lay flat? These pages have such a tight spring that I must sit at a table to keep a flat writing surface. The cover is too soft and flexible; you cannot press the pages flat on it. So this notebook is a big disappointment. A system of signatures that will lay flat is what this notebook needs. On the plus side, the paper has performed well in a variety of inks and the 8mm spacing is the perfect size for lots of handwriting- a little larger than college ruled. I recommend trying another notebook before this Basic.

Pros:- Closure / binding - I like the elastic strap and cloth binding. The notebook lies relatively flat after a short break in period.- No margins. I still have no idea why they insist on putting margins in so many notebooks these days.- Size - the A4 size is perfect and line spacing is great. Whether you write small or large you'll fit quite a bit of writing in this book.- Whiteness. The paper is amazingly white and will do your ink colors justice.Con:- Paper / Feathering - the 90 GSM paper in these notebooks is substantially different than the 90 GSM paper used in Clairefontaine's Classic notebooks. With wetter pens / nibs (especially bold / 1+mm italic nibs) there is an unacceptable amount of feathering in the Basic Clothbound Notebooks.NOTE - Unfortunately the Classic notebooks have margins, you have to choose - great paper or no margins. Apparently you can't have both.- Cover. After just a couple weeks going in and out of my laptop bag the cardboard cover is starting to look a little beat up. By the time I fill this notebook I'm sure the cover will be in really bad shape.Conclusion:If you tend to keep your notebook on your desk and use EF / F / M nibs, you'll love this notebook. If you travel a lot and / or tend to use broader nibs with darker inks, you'd be better off with a Clairefontaine Classic notebook (if you can tolerate the margins) or a Rhodia Webnotebook (if you can tolerate the off-white color and smaller size). The perfect notebook still eludes me. So close, yet so far away.

It is a good notebook

Love these notebooks, I bought one originally to use a journal with my fountain pen collection but am now going to be using them for the final sets of notes from my studies. The paper is smooth, very absorbent, and gives off very good shadings of my inks. Also, the ink from one face does not bleed through to the other, allowing the user to utilize an entire page (unlike cheaper notebooks), which is a huge bonus.

Pros: Fabulous Clairefontaine paper. Good binding that lies flat making writing on the left page fairly easy - unlike some other side-bound notebooks.Cons: Just wish the cover were a bit heavier.

I really like the quality of the paper in this note book. I bought both the 8.25 x 11.75 size to track my day to day thoughts, ideas, and projects. The pages are large enough to allow me to return and add comments to previous notes. It is really helping me to stay organized. I keep and use the fine point black ink Preppy for use with this notebook as it seems to write every time I need it. The paper is a high quality and the fountain pen seems to glide on it rather that scratching across it.

These notebooks are classy and professional. I was also impressed with the customer service at The Goulet Pen Company. One the the best I've ever dealt with. Thank you!!

Stealth! The classic appearance hides the fact that this paper is uber-FP friendly. The large page count is a major plus for the intended purpose: research notes and pre-publishing draft work (yep, I am an oddity -- I prefer longhand for getting my thoughts together).

Great notebook! I don't think I'll be able to write on standard ruled paper ever again.

The notebooks are perfect - very well wrapped and protected, and your service is fast and friendly. I will definitely be shopping with you folks again. Thanks!

I'm using to do mostly math, and engineering homework in pencil... so kind of overkill. But certainy a joy to use. Am putting serious lead on paper, and have noticed no smudging or transfer between pages. This paper erases really cleanly using a Faber-Castell block eraser, even bearing down really hard with a Palomino Blackwing.

This is a very well made notebook with fantastic smooth paper. Highly recommend this notebook. Great everyday meeting or general writing / note taking notebook.

Perfect paper and the perfect size for lots of writing.

Beautiful paper. Slick to write on and very little if any bleed through depending on the ink used.

These are my standard notebooks; I use them for everything, and they're durable, smooth with fountain pens, and the paper is great with all of my inks! The folks at the Goulet Pen Co are a pleasure to work with!

I have been searching for a good journal, read great journal for many years. I have been a long time Moleskine user, but this has been replaced with the Clairfontaine journal. The pages are easy to write on, it has the elastic closure band and the paper is excellent. I liked it so much, I ordered ten of them.

After years of using lower grade paper on Moleskine notebooks, I finally tried Clairefontaine, and what a difference it made! Although drying times can be long, especially when your writing fairly quickly, it's definitely worth it since you will rarely experience bleed through on both sides of the page. It's hard not to buy several at a time!

The notebook is outstanding, both in the feel of the paper and the binding. On the smooth surface of the paper, inks do not soak in--On the one hand, this means no feathering or bleed through, but also means that inks are not immediately dry to the touch and accidental smearing is possible. I have found blotter to be useful, and the paper to be worth the extra consideration.

I have been on a mission to find a perfect A4 journal for professional note taking with fountain pens. The search is over. This notebook is very nicely made - the binding is of high quality, and the cover is handsome, and appears to be durable. And of course the paper is smooth like a baby's... er...skin, and doesn't show any bleedthrough or ghosting, even with my tenacious Noodler's black. At this price, this is the journal bargain of the century. Love this notebook!

Excellent paper, and nice color on cover. I was a tad disappointed in the binding of the cover to the spine at the bottom -- some of the glue was starting to pull away bit; probably from manufacturing (missed some glue) or possibly rough handling (prior to the tender care of Goulet's, who package all their products with the ultimate in care). The size is larger than I've used before, and it dominates the shelf it's on!

This notebook is excellent for my work in the university's ichthyology and genetics labs. Alongside my Noodler's Bulletproof ink, it is a quality writing experience. The page takes any ink I have thrown on it, holding fast and resisting feathering, bleeding and smudging. By far, my favorite notebook of all time!

This paper is as smooth, clean, and as white as can be. I really like the lack of margins that allow for uninterrupted writing up to the edge of the page, decreasing wasted paper. The covers are study and have a wonderful, timelessly classic aestetic. Some higher lube inks are slow to dry on this paper. Noodler's American Eel was very badly behaved, but this is more about ink than papaer. This is more about ink than paper, but worth noting.

The paper is very nice, though I was disappointed that it feathers a bit with Noodler's Baystate Blue. Otherwise, it's nice paper and the cover has a nice understated look. I would like a hard cover like the Black and Red notebooks, but otherwise, the notebook is what I wanted.