For the passerby, ” It is a green hollow where a river sings “… For him, it is his only horizon. Electrohypersensitive (EHS), Philippe Tribaudeau, 63 years old, can only live in an area where electromagnetic waves do not pass. Since 2015, it has been installed on a plot of the Vançon national forest, in Entrepierres, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.
On this sunny May day, far from the sludge of winter, this open-air prison almost takes on a festive appearance. Two caravans, one during the day, the other at night, dry toilets, the Vançon river flowing and, hanging on wires among the pines, laundry drying. Friends came to visit him. Faithful people, members of his support collective.
Near the wooden cabin that her father built for her, Lola, 7 years old, plays and devours The Golden Hookan old Asterix. Her mother, Laure Birgy, 38, goes in one of the caravans. She and Philippe met at an EHS event, where she accompanied her mother, Anne Cautain, who was ill and taking refuge in the stables of an abandoned, candle-lit forest house. Today, Laure Birgy divides her time between the camp and the apartment she rents in Sisteron to offer another life to Lola, who goes to school in the town, to be able to take showers and do laundry.
“Great suffering”
Everyone is celebrating, around a gluten-free pasta salad, a recent victory: on February 22, 2024, the Digne-les-Bains judicial court granted Mr. Tribaudeau the right to stay on this plot against his will. of the National Forestry Office (ONF), which manages this 5,800 hectare massif and had requested its expulsion. If the judge recognized that the right to property was violated, he considered that the right to health was superior to it and that, as long as the State did not find the illegitimate occupant another place to live, it could not could chase him away.
In a letter dated February 28, Philippe Tribaudeau’s lawyer states: “The judge considers that you have successfully demonstrated your pathology and that any other area of residence would constitute a risk for your health (which implicitly constitutes judicial recognition of the pathology). » This recognition by the courts of the reality of electrosensitivity is a first.
For a few hours, Philippe Tribaudeau can certainly escape from his enclosure, but on condition that he does not overdo it. “My head is like a container. I can fill myself with waves to a certain extent, provided I come back here to “empty” myself. I last three hours, four at most. Sometimes I miss it and when I get home I have terrible pain. » The couple gets by by accumulating the RSA, Philippe’s retirement (1,070 euros) and help from Laure’s father.
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