Christine is a misophone, meaning that everyday noises make her life impossible.
The forty-something prefers to say that she “can’t stand the incessant auditory attacks”.
This resident of Seine-Saint-Denis therefore has the perfect equipment to block out the decibels: earplugs — “the basics” — but also noise-canceling headphones, purchased for around 100 euros. “It’s worth them!”
she assures.
Especially in the office, where some colleagues tend to speak very, very loudly on the phone.
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Also read: Silence, in search of a lost world: “Noise pollution is now omnipresent”
In her pavilion, she has equipped all her windows with triple glazing.
“It’s a budget,” admits the lover of calm, “but I explained to my husband that it was not negotiable.
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Treat yourself to a slice of calm
Silence is worth gold.
Because it has become rare, it is expensive and… can be changed.
We can thus treat ourselves to a slice of calm.
With silent retreats whose credo “Travel and be silent” seems to appeal, if we are to believe the number of offers on the Internet.
The Silenceexperience site, for example, promises four days without a word for 460 euros, without board.
The aptly named Point de chut also offers silent stays near Nantes (435 euros + 139 euros for accommodation).
Another option, if you have less time and fewer means, the sensory isolation box, a sort of cocoon designed to float without light and above all without noise: in Paris, the Meïso site offers “60 minutes in weightlessness” for 65 euros.
Same price in Strasbourg, where the brand Bulles à Flott, which sells “bubbles of tranquility for a weightless moment outside of time and space”.
Reserved for the privileged?
Designers know this well, for whom “silent” rhymes with “luxurious”: in the automobile industry, for example, we deploy treasures of technology to filter out the backfires of high-end and very high-end cars.
Also read: Noise pollution: “The ears do not have eyelids, they are always active”
Would the last havens of peace be reserved for the rich, able to protect themselves with noise walls and insulation work?
This is the hypothesis defended by designer Antoine Fenoglio and philosopher Cynthia Fleury.
“The silence is captured by the most privileged socio-economic and cultural circles,” they write in “What cannot be stolen” (Ed. Gallimard).
In Paris, the price per square meter is almost exactly correlated to the noise level.
According to the Observatory of Inequalities, the probability of living in noisy housing is twice as high for families located below the poverty line.