The Valensole Encounter
A lavender farmer in Provence said he found an egg-shaped craft in his field at dawn, with two small beings beside it who paralysed him with a device and then flew off. Traces in the field and the farmer's reputation made it France's best-known close encounter.
- Date
- 1 July 1965
- Place
- Valensole, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
- Witnesses
- Maurice Masse
- Status
- Unresolved
What happened
At about 5:45 a.m. on 1 July 1965, Maurice Masse, 41, was preparing to work his lavender field when he heard a whistling sound and saw what he took for a helicopter in the field. Walking closer, he saw an egg-shaped object about the size of a car, resting on legs, and two small beings, under four feet tall, in grey-green coveralls, examining a lavender plant. One turned and pointed a small tube at him, and he found himself unable to move. The beings entered the craft through a sliding panel and it rose, hovered, and shot away, leaving him frozen for some minutes.
The beings
Masse described large bald heads, pale skin, large slanted eyes, small mouths, and pointed chins, in the general form of what would later be called the Grey, though his account predates the spread of that image. He said they looked at him with curiosity rather than hostility.
Aftermath
The landing site showed a deep circular impression with four grooves and a central hole, and the lavender around it withered and would not grow for years. The gendarmerie investigated; the case was studied by the French Air Force and later by GEPAN, the national UFO office. Masse, a former Resistance member and a respected figure in the village, refused money and interviews and suffered fatigue for months. He told Jacques Vallée that he had left parts of the story untold.
Explanations
No conventional explanation has been offered that accounts for the ground traces and the witness's standing together. Sceptics note the single witness and the resemblance to the Socorro landing of the previous year, which had been widely reported. The case is unresolved.
Beings described
Sources
- Valensole UFO incident
- Jacques Vallée, Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact (1988) Find on Amazon
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