A major French train station has opened a ‘quiet space’ for passengers who are sensitive to noise or light, in a pilot project for better provision for autistic people.
The Gare de l’Est train station in Paris, which sees 40 million passengers per year, now boasts an ‘espace calme’, intended for travellers who are especially sensitive to noise and light and find the bustle of the busy train station overwhelming.
The 7 square metre space offers a quiet atmosphere and soft lighting, with sensory displays such as a bubble column, and is also air conditioned.
It is open to any traveller on production of a train ticket – although it’s mostly intended for people with autism spectrum disorders, it also welcomes migraine sufferers or people with anxiety issues. A maximum of three people are allowed in the space at a time.
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🚉 Un nouvel espace calme Ă destination des personnes autistes et hypersensibles face au bruit a ouvert Ă la gare de l’Est, Ă Paris. Actuellement en phase de test, l’espace, entièrement nouveau dans une gare française, pourrait ĂŞtre gĂ©nĂ©ralisĂ© Ă l’avenir.
— Agence France-Presse (@afp.com) August 9, 2025 at 3:02 PM
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The Gare de l’Est space opened in May and at the end of this year its use will be assessed and, if it has proved useful, other train stations will start to open similar spaces.
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Quiet spaces have already been tested out in schools and some businesses, while the Club France fan zone had one during the Paris Olympics last year.
In 2021 a law was brought before the French parliament proposing to make quiet hours compulsory for large retail spaces, but it failed to pass.
Nonetheless, supermarkets and commercial centres in France have also been experimenting with ‘quiet hours’ – certain times of the week when they lower the lighting and turn off background music.
The chains Leclerc, Carrefour and Super-U have all taken various measures for a quiet hour at certain times of the week, in order to make shopping more comfortable for people who are sensitive to noise and light.
“There is no sound, and the lights are programmed to dim automatically,” Mohamed Mbaye, manager at Carrefour Market Paris AlĂ©sia, told AFP. “Some customers come specifically at these times to do their shopping in peace and quiet.”
At the Beaugrenelle shopping centre in Paris, which welcomes 13 million visitors a year, l’heure silencieuse (quiet hour) is scheduled from 3pm to 4pm on weekdays.
Nadia Essayan, the centrist ex-MP who proposed the law on quiet spaces, admitted that implementing the measure is “very difficult”, particularly in shopping centres where not all shops are participating.
“We needed to work with all the shops to ensure that the atmosphere was quieter everywhere,” added the regional councillor for Centre-Val-de-Loire, regretting that “most of the large stores have not managed to do so”.