The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 1953-1954-54-Valbeleix.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
An unsigned article, "communicated by J. G., mailbox 126, 63 - Riom", in the "Contact LEcteurs" supplement of the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit #1 of March 1972, told that in 1953 or 1954, at night, Mr. Fournier came down from his prospecting tour in the mountains.
As he had just passed through the village of Valbeleix in the Puy-de-Dôme and was preparing, on the D. 26 road, to enter the Courgoul canyon, he saw in the middle of the road three "white girls dancing, holding hands".
He flashed his headlights to see what it was. In dimmed mode, they were almost in front of his car, in full headlights he could see them further ahead. He told: "I then decided to go for it, to see what it would do, absolutely not believing that there was a hint of reality in this kind of vision. Well! the three girls - they were real - still holding hands, and without touching the ground, got out of my way and went over the big wall which is on the left, and which is none other than that of... the cemetery of Valbeleix."
The article said that for a long time people both in Perrier and Issoire laughed at the cheese seller: "You like girls so much that you see them everywhere"; but "Our man never gave up."
The article says "We went on the spot for information. Several people told us that the "three girls" do exist and one of our customers confirmed the repetition of this local fact. We have direct testimony, that of the postman, whose name we will keep silent, who saw "the three ladies" in the same place, and more than three times: "Fournier may very well have seen them, as I have seen them!", he told us."
LDLN's editors concluded: "We won't venture an explanation, but excellent cheese is made in the region of Saint-Nectaire, Besse-en-Chandesse is wonderful in summer with Lake Pavin, winter with its snows, and if nature tempts you, perhaps one evening, at nightfall, you will see the three dancing nymphs near the Valbeleix cemetery. Send us the photo! Thank you."
[Ref. ldl1:] MAGAZINE D'UFOLOGIE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":
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It was in 1953 or 1954, Mr. Fournier was coming down from his prospecting tour in the mountains, returning that evening from Compains, at night. As he had just crossed the village of Valbeleix (Puy-de-Dôme) (Michelin nr 73, fold 14), and was preparing, on the D. 26, to enter the Courgoul gorges, he saw in the middle of the road three "white girls dancing, holding hands."
He flashed his headlights to see what it was. In dimmed headlights, they were almost in front of his car, in full headlights he could see them further ahead. "I then decided to drive onto them, to see what it would do, absolutely not believing that there was a hint of reality in this kind of vision. Well! the three girls - they were real - still holding each other by hand, and without touching the ground, got out of my way and went over the big wall on the left, which is none other than that of... the cemetery of Valbeleix.
For a long time people joked about the cheese seller: "You like girls so much that you see them everywhere" and people laughed at him in Perrier as well as in Issoire. Our man has never given up.
We went there to investigate. Several people told us that the "three girls" do exist and one of our customers confirmed the repetition of this local fact. We have direct testimony, that of the postman, whose name we will conceal, who saw "the three ladies" in the same place, more than three times: "Fournier may very well have seen them, as I have seen them!", he told us.
We would like to thank in advance those of our friends who would point out facts, similarities or analogies. (Communicated by J. G., B. P. 126, 63 - Riom).
N.D.L.R. - We won't venture an explanation, but excellent cheese is made in the region of Saint-Nectaire, Besse-en-Chandesse is wonderful in the summer with Lake Pavin, in winter with its snow, and if nature tempts you, maybe one evening, at nightfall, you will see the three dancing nymphs near the Valbeleix cemetery. Send us the photo! Thank you.
[Ref. ioi1:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "INFO OVNI":
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DATE ../SUM/1953 or 1954
TIME Night
LOCATION Valbeleix (Puy de Dôme) WITNESS Mr. Fournier.
THE FACTS.
The witness, a representative, was returning from a prospecting tour and was driving at night on the D. 26. As he was about to enter the Courgoul gorges, he saw in the middle of the road "three girls dancing while holding hands"... He flashed the headlights to see what it was all about. In code, they were almost in front of the car, in headlights, he saw them further ahead! He then decided to go for it to see what it would do because he didn't feel at all that his vision could have any reality. Then the three girls, perfectly real, still holding hands and without touching the ground, left the road and went over a large wall on the left which happens to be that of the Valbeleix cemetery!
SOURCES.
Personal communication.
INVESTIGATION.
In Valbeleix, several interviewed people confirmed the "existence" of these three girls whose appearances constitute a repetitive local occurrence, observed among others by the postman who wishes to remain anonymous.
INVESTIGATORS.
J.G. and B.P. of Riom.
NOTE.
This event cannot be classified as a landing. However, we wanted to report it for two reasons: on the one hand, it has a very "Magonian" character and thereby constitutes an extremely interesting link between the great faeries and the appearances of humanoids... On the other hand, it presents with the case which will follow the most disturbing similarities both in the impression of unreality of the perceived phenomenon and in the variations of its distance according to the lighting (headlights or codes), as well as in the reactions of the two motorists witnesses.
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There is a "class" of alleged "strange facts" referred to as "white ladies" or "ghost hitchhikers", found all over France. The typical story is that one would see while driving in the middle of the night, along country roads, a woman in a white dress. If the driver stops and takes this "white lady" on board, she disappears, sometimes with a terrifying howl. In Haute-Loire, the legend describes appearances between Brioude and Langeac. There are of course stories of black, blue, red ladies, they were already appearing in medieval literature.
There is obviously no intrinsic relationship between such accounts and ufology, which is the study of reports of sightings of unidentified flying objects; the "white lady" in the stories has nothing "extraterrestrial" and does not descend from a flying craft. However, some ufologists make the connection. The story of the "three nymphs of Valebeleix" appears here in a ufology magazine, in the midst of quite "classic" UFO sighting reports.
Some so-called "skeptical" ufologists view such report as follows: ghost stories, stories of religious apparitions, "white ladies", and other accounts of events of this sort of "extraordinary" are all hoaxes: "in the past, one saw ghosts, now in the space age and because of science-fiction one sees aliens." Other ufologists on the contrary, thinking that all these various "experiences" are real, and believe that this is caused by a certain "higher intelligence" coming from a certain "other world", that all this is staged by this "intelligence" to carry out a kind of "manipulation" of humanity, for a purpose generally left unknown.
When a ufologist "puts aside" non-intrinsically ufological matters (ghosts, white ladies, religious apparitions, etc.), he is sometimes accused by the proponents of this latter theory of being narrow-minded. So I don't set them aside, but document them and review them. Are they "verified", convincing? And if so, what do they demonstrate?
Besides the lack of credibility that we can give, intrinsically, to a story of young flying girls, I note this:
The story is unusually unsigned, as "J. G., B. P. 126, 63 - Riom" is quite odd. Who wrote this? Jean Giraud?
We are told that "we will conceal the name" of the postman; but in a village like Valbeleix, this is little respect of anonymity.
One of the alleged witnesses is referred to as "one of our clients". The reporter does not seem to be a ufologist. Who is this "we"?
The witness "Mr. Fournier" was not likely to be found by a search: the first name is missing, Fournier is a very common name, and it is not clear where Mr. Fournier is from except that we are told he was a cheese merchant in 1953 or 1954 near Perrier and Issoire. But the story surfacing in 1972, 18 years later, finding him does not seem obvious to me. (In any case, in 2022, I failed to find any Fournier cheese dairy in the region concerned or the entire Puy-de-Dôme. No BP 126 in Riom in 2022 matches. No Fournier cheese establishment in France in the "List od EC approved milk and dairy product establishments" of 2017. "Fournier" could be the name of an employee, of course, but I took a chance.)
The decision of a witness to "go for it, to see what it would do", in other words to voluntarily kill young girls, to commit a murder, seems to me a total aberration of behavior, the explanation of which more logical seems to me to be that all this is only an invention. I can't believe for a moment that a motorist seeing people on the road would decide to run over them "to see what that would do."
Note all the same that, at least, there really is a cemetery surrounded by a low wall at the edge of the D.26 road on the left at the exit of Valebeleix:
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I failed to find any other source or version of this story, nor any investigation or research about it.
The curiously playful "note from the editor" ("one makes excellent cheese in the region of Saint-Nectaire") leads me to believe that the editors were not quite convinced of the authenticity of the story.
All this means that in my opinion the whole story is probably a pure fabrication.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Valbeleix, Puy-de-Dôme, Fournier, white lady, cemetery, Compains, night, postman, cheese maker, seller, Courgoul, road, three, girls, white, dance, hands, headlights, Perrier, Issoire, flight
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 2, 2022 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | June 14, 2022 | Addition [ioi1]. |
