This article was published in the daily newspaper France Soir, France, on Februry 7, 1997.
Note: I can't see by reading the article why this could not have been a meteor or rocket debris reentering the atmosphere.
See also February 7, 1997.
Bizarre: a ball of green color which, as explained by several witnesses, disintegrated in a shower of sparks, was observed Tuesday when the night fell in the sky of Tarn-et-Garonne. Research by the gendarmes of Valence-d'Agen produced nothing: not the least ground trace of an craft coming from beyond. The luminous phenomenon occurred on a Auvillar-Montauban axis in the direction est to west.