I have been on the quest for a decent notepad for a while and have used Moleskines, Miquelrius, Pukka pads and Rhodia pads.
The Moleskines look more stylish but the paper is of low quality when compared to Pukka or Rhodia pads.
Recently the rules changed on how postage was charged in the UK. It is now based on size and weight rather than just weight. It has now become disadvantageous to use DL envelopes, C5 is now the premium size to get the maximum number of written words to the recipient. As I write a lot it is important for me not to send a letter to someone who then gets billed postage and a "fine" to receive it because the envelope is more than 5mm thick.
I have been using small Rhodia pads for some time, but when I decided that I wanted to buy the thick (300 page) A5 pads I found that the only supplier in the UK at the time would only sell them in packs of four. As I wanted one grid and one lined pads it would have meant having to buy 8 pads. The company weren't going to accommodate me and I wasn't about to bend to them so I had a moan on FPN and in the end Martin from www.thewritingdesk.co.uk (TWDPens) came to my rescue. It worked out a better deal that I was going to get anywhere else in the UK. I ended up buying 2 x CF/15600 - Rhodia GIANT A5 lined pad & 2 x CF/15200 - Rhodia GIANT A5 grid pad, as well as some A4 pads for my son in university, although the latter was from another source.
The cover of the pad is pre-creased so that you can fold it back over the pad. The quality of the paper is superb, nice and shiny and improves the output of some of my wetter pens immeasurably. I had been writing with a Danitrio Densho and Mikado on cheap legal pads and the out put was awful, almost like writing slowly on blotting paper. The same pens used on the Rhodia pads gave much better results, almost no feathering whatsoever.
I prefer to write in the pad and then tear out the page using the perforations provided, but with a new pad this is difficult to do as the pad is so thick. You may therefore find that it is easier to tear out the page then write on it. The only other moan is that the margin is typed in a strange place, about a third of the way across the page in the lined notepads. I have to admit that they are feint enough to ignore though.
Would I recommend them as a notepad or writing pad to an FP user? Yes definitely, the paper is superb. The perforation system is secure enough to hold the pages well, but allows them to be removed with relative ease and without risk of tearing.
I hope to see Martin increase the range of the pads on his site, but I can imagine that there is not a huge amount of demand for these at the moment in the UK. Few people have discovered how good they are. If you need the stylishness of the Moleskine can I suggest that there is a leather-look notepad holder, available in 3 sizes, in black or orange, from Rhodia outlets, but sadly not as yet in the UK. There is a picture of one in use somewhere on this site with an orange LE VP that looks truly stunning. Sadly I can't find the picture at the moment.
Rhodias come in a huge range of pad types and sizes. If you haven't tried one out I would thoroughly recommend that you do. I have no link to Rhodia or The Writing Desk, just a happy customer.