La Rentrée, and the September Reset

September has always struck me as a month of beginnings. In France they call it la rentrée, the great return. After a long summer pause, people step back into the rhythms of work, school, and everyday life. Shops fill with fresh agendas and stacks of new notebooks. There is a collective sense that the year is underway again.

Here in Canada, the feeling is familiar, even if we do not name it. For many of us, September meant back to school: the smell of sharpened pencils, the squeak of new shoes, and the promise of a clean slate. Even years after leaving school behind, I still sense that shift. The light changes, the evenings cool, and I find myself wanting to tidy my desk, open a fresh notebook, and start again.

In the Jewish calendar, the season brings yet another new year. Rosh Hashanah arrives with apples, honey, and the call to reflect and renew. I have always thought of it as part of the same cycle: September is a moment to take stock, to sharpen one’s tools — whether pencils or intentions — and move forward with purpose.

And for me, September carries a third beginning. It was in September of 1987 that I first opened the doors of Laywine’s. Every autumn since has felt like the store’s own new year. We polish the counters, refresh the shelves, and prepare for another chapter. Just as our customers return from summer with fresh energy, so too does the shop itself.

It is no surprise that this is the season when people come looking for notebooks, pens, and tools to mark their own reset. These are not casual purchases. They are small commitments to projects long imagined, to habits renewed, to words waiting to be written.

We have gathered a selection that speaks to this season. We are calling it our La Rentrée Edit: notebooks, pens, desk accessories, and other companions for a September reset. It is, in its own way, a grown-up back-to-school list.

Beginnings are not reserved for January. Sometimes they arrive with the cool air of September, carrying that old mixture of anticipation and promise.

From all of us at Laywine’s, I wish you a meaningful reset and every good thing in the year ahead.

~Peter Laywine

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