Quo Vadis is member of the Clairefontaine group (like Rhodia) and so uses CF paper in its products. They usually make diaries and planners, so I was a bit surprised at the appearance of a plain notebook by Quo Vadis, but it looked like it would do just the trick. There were three colours available: black, orange, and red, along with some other more decorative designs. In terms of format, there are the small size moleskine notebooks which are a bit larger than the small Moleskines, which makes me happy, and also a large size that is larger than the Moleskine large, more the size of the larger cahiers. The paper they are filled with comes in lined and plain -- the rules are quite narrow and I wanted plain or grid anyway so I went with plain, red, small. The price was ten quid, so about the same as a Moleskine.
The cover of the notebooks has the usual elastic closure and is hard bound, but with a bit of flex to it (more than the usual moleskine). There is a pocket in the back, and a ribbon bookmarker. The pages are sewn and then glue bound, so it will lay flat although not as easily as the usual moleskine notebook. I expect it will lay flat easily with a bit of breaking in.
Now, the important thing, the paper. Is it any good?
In the shop, I ran my hands over it, and it had that signature clairefontaine silken feel. It is not the same CF paper in their notebooks: it is ivory instead of white, and quite a bit thinner -- the thickness is akin to the usual Moleskine paper. So basically, the same colour and thickness but very very satiny smooth. I got it home and tried it out with my Lamy 2000 xf filled with regular old black and it is very much a pleasure to write on -- the nib glides across the page and there is no bleeding or feathering to speak of. The only downside is the thinness of the paper: while this is no bleedthrough, you can quite obviously see writing "echoes" on the other side. I'll probably write on the backs of the pages anyway.
So, in summary, I think it's a good notebook. I prefer the slightly larger formal to the usual small Moleskine, and the paper is far far better. The only thing I would change is to make it slightly thicker, honestly, but other than that, I recommend this notebook and you should all buy one from the nice folks at Nemeta (although I did suggest that the manager should try ordering some Rhodia moleskines, also, so watch that space, too).
