Maybe it’s the fact that this year represents my tenth anniversary of becoming a serious pen-and-paper hobbyist, but I’ve found myself going back through my stationery drawers and pulling out products I used to use a lot, but for whatever reason have set aside. One of these is the Quo Vadis Habana, which was my go-to daily journal/everyday notebook for about two years in the early 2010s.
Yes, that’s dot grid Clairefontaine paper!
Better known for their planners than their notebooks, Quo Vadis is distributed in the United States by Exaclair, alongside French stationery products from Rhodia, Clairefontaine, and Herbin. While the notebooks are made in the U.S., they use Clairefontaine paper, so it’s probably safe to assume there’s a relationship between the brands beyond distribution. Back when I first used the Habana as my primary notebook, they featured the exceptionally fountain pen friendly, white lined 90g Clairefontaine paper. At some point, they moved to an ivory paper that wasn’t as versatile, and the Habana notebooks started to disappear from fountain pen-oriented retailers.
Today, the lined Habana journals still use the “new” ivory paper, which is labeled as 85g Clairefontaine paper that doesn’t perform quite the same as the 90g paper found in Clairefontaine Classic notebooks. While it works ok with fountain pens, you’ll likely see spots of bleed-through with very wet nibs. That said, while I was placing a recent Exaclair order for the shop, I noticed that the Habana is now available once again with 90gsm Clairefontaine dot grid paper, bringing the Habana back onto my radar as a serious workhorse notebook option.
So What Do I Enjoy So Much About the Quo Vadis Habana?
At first glance, the Habana might appear to be a standard A5-ish notebook, but it has a couple of features that I enjoy in addition to DOT GRID CLAIREFONTAINE PAPER (which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, so I’m excited). First of all, the Habana will lie flat on a desk. The softer leatherette cover, coupled with the sewn binding and 80 sheet / 160 page format, keeps the notebook flexible enough to stay open on its own. Second, the Habana measures slightly larger than your traditional A5 notebook, at 6.25” x 9.25, offering more writing space while remaining slimmer than most notebooks. When I used the Habana regularly, I had a pretty heavy travel schedule and prioritized a notebook/journal that easily slipped into a briefcase. The Habana’s soft cover and slim size was flexible enough to carry on the go, while remaining durable.
Dot Grid Habana Notebooks Are Now Available in The Curated Shop
Not only am I happy to welcome the Quo Vadis Habana back into my own personal rotation/recommendation list, but I’ve added the Dot Grid Habana Journals to the shop in both red and black covers. I started the store in order to feature quality products that don’t necessarily register on the stationery hype train, and while this one may seem about as boring as it gets, standard functional notebooks such as the Habana and the Rhodia Webnotebook fill core needs in the kit of any working stationery enthusiast. I may add additional colors in the future, and I’ll be watching the paper to see if Quo Vadis goes back to 90g on the lined version.
The Gentleman Stationer is an Authorized Retailer of Clairefontaine, Rhodia, and Quo Vadis products through the T.G.S. Curated Shop.