The Valensole UFO case is claimed to be one of the most credible UFO and alien encounters in history. Visual and physical evidence from the case: Landing marks on the ground. A deep hole left from a projectile on the bottom of the craft. High levels of calcium found at the landing area. Plant life began to die.
On July 1, 1965, near Valensole, France, a farmer named Maurice Masse noticed something unusual in his lavender field. It was around 5:45 a.m., and Masse was smoking a cigarette before starting his tractor, when he was suddenly startled by a whistling noise which he thought to be a helicopter at first. At the time, he was positioned next to a 7-foot-tall rubble pile at the edge of a vineyard, so he had to step out from around this to view the source of the sound. It was then that he saw something shaped rather like a rugby ball and about the size of a Renault Dauphine, resting on four legs 200 feet away in his lavender field.
Through an opening in the craft, he thought that he could see two back-to-back seats. Close to the curious looking object were two figures resembling “boys of about eight years” taking lavender plants. Masse thought at first, from an initial distance of 60m, that these were the people who had been taking his plants. He decided to approach quietly through the vineyard. However, when he got closer, he realised the figures were not children but unusual beings. He left the vineyard and walked through the low height lavender field.
More curious than afraid, Masse approached and when he got within 15-20 feet of the figures, they became aware of him and stood up. Masse had described the beings being less than 4 feet tall (1.2m), dressed in gray-green overalls with smooth, bald, pumpkinlike heads, large slanted eyes, and with little holes for their mouths. These eyes slanted away around the sides of the face. The mouth was merely a slit or hole, without noticeable lips. He also noted that their faces were capable of conveying human expressions. They made grunting sounds between them, although their mouths did not change appearance, and Masse was not sure where on their bodies the noise was coming from. One of the creatures pulled out a small pencil like object at Masse.
He found that he could no longer move, and was rooted to the spot. The creature then put the weapon back into a holster on the left side of its suit. The two creatures ran to the rugby ball with great agility. They closed a sliding door (Which Masse described to be very similar to a wooden filing cabinet) and the UFO took off with a great whistling sound. Within a few seconds the UFO had risen into the air and sped off into a westerly direction towards Manosque. Masse, who had been badly frightened, decided to travel into town and tell a buddy who managed a cafe about his encounter. His friend believed him.
Even though Masse had a good local reputation, he insisted his friend contact the authorities. Suddenly, Masse realized that he shouldn’t reveal the incident, so he disguised it as a joke. After he left, his friend, who was certain that Masse had been serious the entire time, started telling the story of this strange encounter to everyone. In a short span of time, the story was now known to the whole village and soon to the whole country of France. Marks from the apparent UFO remained visible on the ground. The most remarkable of the ground traces was that no lavender plants would grow at the landing site for ten years!
The traces consisted of a flat imprint just over 1m in diameter. In the centre, where the central support had been, was a cylindrical hole some 30cm deep and some 15cm diameter. From the hole radiated four flat grooves, making an x shape. Each of the grooves was 2m long and 25cm deep. The soil here was of a near-liquid consistency despite the fact that it had not rained for some time. After a period of time, a 3 m diameter circular area in the middle of rows of lavender plants died, with only a few weeds continuing to grow.
Around the perimeter a number of lavender plants were stunted and withered looking. The calcium content of the soil, taken from the site, was much higher than in soil taken from other areas of the field. Masse reploughed the landing site and replanted, but these plants also died. For several weeks after the encounter, Masse was incredibly fatigued, and could stay no more than four hours awake for a time. He was interviewed by Aime Michel, one of France’s most prominent ufologists on August 8 1965, and was shown a Socorro UFO which he took to be the craft that he saw.
