Libb

The topic everyone was impatiently waiting for, we can all agree.

Ballpoint pens and fountain pens

If you did not knew it already the Cristal Bic, the world most used ballpoint pen, is French and even though the brand is now global and have factories in many countries (including the US, among other brands they own the US Waterman), they still made part of their production in the EU, in France and Spain.

(For those like me who worries about plastic/throw away pens, you may not know that Bic has recently started selling an aluminum body that's shaped like the cristal Bic that you can insert a refill in. Also, and for much longer, they make it possible to buy refills for the cheap plastic cristal Bic by packs of 50—so, you can keep using the same single clear plastic body for much longer only replacing the ink. Alas, those refills are not as readily available as the Bic itself.)

If you're interested in Bic history, and want to know more about what they do, they have this PDF available for download.

I'm not affiliated with them, I just have been chewing on one or another of their Bic pens for well over 50 years now and I quite like them. And that is coming from a lifelong fountain pen user...

Fountain pens? One may want to consider the excellent German brand Lamy which offers both cheap and expensive models of fountain pens (and ballpoint pens too, but not as cheap as Bic). Their cheap ‘Lamy Safari’ pictured here was designed in the 80s/90s to help kids proper handwriting and is still, imho, one of the best cheap/beginner-friendly fountain pen one could buy here in Europe. Its also real sturdy while still being easy to fix if anythign was to happen to it ;)

Also, I think they look gorgeous with their bright flashy colors :p

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(colored) Pencils

If you're more into pencils, may I suggest you check the German FaberCastell or the Swiss Caran d'Ache? They're very different kind of pencils but they're also both amazingly good, be it their 'cheaper' lines (say, for kids) as well as, obviously, their artist lines (much more expensive too).

Watercolors

For watercolors, I would suggest the Dutch Royal Talens. Their student-grade paint 'Van Gogh' is unbelievably good for its price, as well as their artist-grade 'Rembrandt'. Heck, even their cheapest 'ArtCreation' line is nice (and it also offers truly excellent and cheap sketchbooks)

Obviously, the English Winsor & Newton whose artist grade paints are now made in France if I'm not mistaken, as well as their Cotman student-grade—but if you go the student grade road, I would strongly suggest you give Royal Talens 'Van Gogh' a try, like really, as you may be surprised.

The French Sennelier, they have a honey-based artist-grade watercolors that are so bright <3. They also have a student grade called 'La Petite Aquarelle'.

Last but certainly not least, I would not want to forget the Ukrainian's Rosa. A recent discovery for me (a little over a year ago) which I quite like.

One should also talk about paint brushes for watercolors, and about inks for fountain pens as in both cases there are excellent EU brands, but this is already way too long ;)

Your turn! Do you know any other European brand of pens, pencils or watercolors?

Edit: updated the title from 'in the EU' to 'in Europe'

I don't know if this was already mentioned but I just saw it mentioned in the French-speaking !utilisereuropeen@jlai.lu (Use European) community and I thought it was worth talking about it, here too. So, if you don't know about ARTE TV yet, here is my take on it:

ARTE TV is the European culture TV channel (free and on demand). It is a 32 years old German-French-European public TV which is rather unique.

Unique, because there is barely any ads to watch (and the rare ones are a somewhat very recent addition, hopefully they won't add anymore).

Unique, because like its name may suggests, this TV main focus (main, not exclusive) is on art, culture and creation. They regularly air concerts (contemporary, pop, rock, orchestral/classical,...), dance festivals, theater, opera, and so on. They also have series, movies, documentaries in a wide selection of genres. Podcasts, news,... The content is available in French and/or in German. Foreign movies are often aired or streamed in their original language, with subtitles.

Unique because, being a public television it's free access. There is no subscription, no login required either. It's entirely paid by French and German tax-payers money (you're welcome)

Is it worth it?

My spouse and I have not owned a TV for more than twenty years and ARTE could easily be the one reason we would want to own one but we don't even have to since a lot of their content is available through their website/Replay: arte.tv (not all content is available. Many film won't but a lot still are).

In recent years, we have noticed their documentaries morphing into the over-dramatized docu-fiction types, something my spouse and I consider of little value compared to more traditional type of documentaries (a lot more time is being spend on dramatization itself instead of actual information sharing/discussion). Therefore, we barely watch any of their new type of documentaries but if you're more into that type of content than we are, I would say it's probably worth checking.

They regularly have an excellent selection of films. Like, really. Things other TV would seldom dare to air. and like I said, there is no fucking ad-breaks either.

I don't know how easy it is to access ARTE from foreign countries, but worse case one would need to use a VPN and pick a French/German address, even probably any European address would do.

https://www.arte.tv/en/