The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Républicain Lorrain, France, on December 12, 1980.
The Valence gendarmes are perplexed. They were alerted on Wednesday by a couple, Social Security executives, residing at 82, rue de Monteller in Valence (Drôme): from the window of their apartment, these two people observed with the naked eye, then using long-range binoculars, an ovoid-shaped craft, fully illuminated, yellowish in color. The craft had two green and red dots on the spoon-shaped ends. The witnesses indicate that these luminous dots were not flashing.
The craft stopped for almost three minutes in the sky of Valence, in absolute silence. It was around 7:20 p.m. according to the witnesses. Then the object started at high speed towards the north and disappeared in the night, it was ten times the size of a large plane, says the couple who has not yet recovered. It was only the next day that they went to tell their story to the Valence gendarmes.
Another testimony supported the statements of the first two witnesses. It is that of the personal secretary of the prefect of the Drôme. She in turn claims to have observed the craft with the naked eye. According to the policemen, the three testimonies match exactly.
The policemen opened an investigation. Yesterday they contacted the Group for the Study of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (G.E.P.A.N.) in Toulouse, whose point of view is impatiently awaited.
