This article was published in the daily newspaper Le Provençal, France, page 7, on March 25, 1980.
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I am not afraid to say it: I have seen U.F.O's!
This assertion could be the deeds of a correspondent in need for a story, if I did not have, to confirm my statements, as you will see thereafter, the most worthy of faith witnesses - and the most official - which can be found.
Actually, the term "flying object" is unsuitable, for nothing proves that they were objects. It would be more appropriate to say: "unidentified luminous air phenomenon".
Since the first appearance, a few weeks ago, which had justified an investigation by the gendarmerie, I had kindly requested to all the nightbirds of my knowledge to alert me if they saw something weird in the sky. Sunday evening, at about 11:00 p.m., a phone call sends me outdoors, hastily armed with binoculars and my photographic material. Impossible to see anything from the premises of Saint-Rémy, because of the parasitic reflections of public lighting. Estimating that I would benefit from taking height, I move towards one of the highest points of the Alpilles, the plate of Caume. On the small road which climbs to the television tower, I cross the "4-L" [cheap police car] of the chief of the firemen crew, Second Lieutenant Durand (the news being spread little by little in the city, he would ne be crossed that I reveal, now, that he was the principal observer of the first appearance).
I arrive at the T.V. relay where I find, all headlights extinguished, the van of the gendarmerie.
"Your headlights must have scared 'them'", chief Vincent and gendarme De Mattos tell me, "for there is nothing anymore now."
I learn that they had been attending during nearly one hour a true air ballet carried out by weird lights.
And, suddenly, the lights return, two, then three, then four, in the approximate direction of the North, above, it seems, of Saint-Rémy. They move slowly in the direction of the wind (violent on the summits of the Alpilles), but also against the winds. They are of variable intensity, and their color is yellow orange. The chief of the firemen joined us meanwhile, and we look at it during ten or fifteen minutes.
To appreciate the distance, different raisings would have to be made; we decide to change the observation spot. The car of the gendarmes ahead, we go down again off la Caume and cross the road of Saint-Rémy to Maussane to take the forest road which leads to the Baux, by the peaks. With two kilometers approximately, a small projection enables us to have a new sight on Saint-Rémy, in direction of the North-East this time. The lights are still on the city. Sometimes they flicker, sometimes they fade then die out to re-ignite a few minutes later, at the same place or at a different place, approaching or moving away one of the other, shining intensely during a few seconds before dying out again. One of them even appears below the city lights, therefore very close to the ground. The observation lasts more than one hour, since it is more than midnight thirty when I decide to leave, the display seemingly finished.
The binoculars did not show more details than the observation with the naked eye. The tests by photographs obviously did not give anything, in spite of the teleobjective; because it would have been necessary to be able to shoot for several minutes so that the film, of average sensitivity, gets impressed.
What was it? Neither stars, neither weather balloons, neither satellites nor known aircraft. Will the specialized association Ouranos, immediately alerted, be able to obtain other precise details? Did other people observe the phenomenon? Currently the mystery remains whole, and our curiosity frustrated.
A. ROUMANNILLE
The gendarmes, who patrolled up to three o'clock in the morning, saw nothing anymore.
