Field Trip: La Couronne Du Comte @couronneducomte

This was a short and sweet visit to La Couronne du Comte in Tilburg, right before the Tilburg Pen Show 2014. At 10:00 am, when the store opened, it was already teeming with people. People with good taste, clearly.

I look terrible.

It's a small store located on a cute corner. The store is long and narrow, but is so chock full of amazing pens and inks and paper that it doesn't leave you feeling like there's anything missing.

What's very inviting is that it's very clean and well organized. The notebooks are all aligned nicely, the chairs are aligned nicely, everything looks good. It makes you want to come in, sit down, relax, and try some pens and buy some pens. All that's missing is a coffee corner. (There's an idea...)

Everything is highlighted so nicely - you'll stand there drooling for a bit. I love the touch of the plant,by the way. There are also some really unique pieces that you can buy...or stare at longingly. Such as the Pelikan M1000 Raden... A wee bit out of my price range.

AH! The Pelikan M400 White Tortoise ballpoint pen - the companion to my M400 White Tortoise fountain pen. That one, I wanted. Even though it's a ballpoint, yeah. 

Montblanc, naturally. 

It was a bit tough to drag a certain Visconti-fan away from this one - a colossal (to me) Visconti.

The Marlen Aleph iss unique with its steel flexible nib and piston-filling system. It's a pretty big pen. 

I spy a TWSBI Diamond 540 in amber... hard to get but leave it a pen p0rn store to have one!

I couldn't get to the ink wall because it's behind the till and there were quite a few people at the till already - but here's a snippet.

Need a Retro51 fix? There is a scrumptious selection of those too. I really liked the rainbow one on the end, but managed to restrain myself knowing that we would be heading to the pen show shortly. 

I mean, really, how tempting is this?

Parker, Cross, Diplomat, and leather in all sorts of fun colours. 

There's something for everyone. No joke - there's a little table with the Lamy ABCs! It ranges from affordable to, well, out of my price range.

Overall, it was a great visit to the store. There's even more stuff online so don't hesitate to check it out. You won't be sorry. Well, you might be sorry. Have a look online! If you're ever in the neighborhood, there's no doubt Dennis would love a visit from you!