The roots of this famed paper brand lie in Etival Clairefontaine, near Strasbourg, the historic home of the French paper industry. The Clairefontaine paper mill was set up in 1858, using cotton from the local textile industry, and progressed from paper to envelopes and then to a range of notebooks that are still standard-issue in French schools. Clairefontaine continues to manufacture all its own materials, and is famed for its ultra smooth writing paper as well as its art papers.
