The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Journal du Centre, Nevers, France, page 5, on November 3, 1997.
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By going through the departmental archives and the local press, we can count no fewer than seventy-five UFO sightings in the Nièvre from 1946 to the present day. A chronicle that will make your hair stand on end.
July 13, 1952: In Prémery and Nevers, two witnesses observed a white ball flying at high speed in the sky. One of them claimed that the ball had stopped for a moment. ((J. du C., 07/31/1952)
August 17, 1953: Residents of Chiddes observed for twenty minutes a round disk, around which blue and red flames radiated. After the observation, the sky of Chiddes and in particular the church bell tower were covered with "threads of the virgin". (J. du C., 08/22/1953)
July 7, 1954: In Saint-Hilaire-en-Morvan, a farmer and his son observed around 8 a.m. a sort of incandescent globe emitting a bright, white and scintillating light. At the same time, they noticed a red object with the form of a reddish-brown bag with two fins. (J. du C., 23/08/1954)
October 3, 1954: On the same evening, five people observed in the sky of Château-Chinon, a motionless, oval-shaped luminous spot. The spot separated into two disks that began to rotate at high speed, changing color several times. Everything disappeared. Then the luminous spot reappeared and the phenomenon was repeated several times. (J. du C., 10/5/1954)
October 17, 1954: Three people driving in a car observed around 8 p.m. near Luzy, a metal airship flying at a very low altitude. The craft flew at a dizzying speed and lit up the ground as if it were broad daylight. (La Liberté, 10/22/1954)
October 18, 1954: 8:45 a.m. A bus heading toward Nevers passes through the town of Saxi-Bourdon. The driver and his twenty-seven passengers observe in the sky an object in the shape of a rugby ball, very bright and motionless at an altitude of 70 or 80 m. Suddenly it disappears vertically with extreme speed. The gendarmerie has conducted an investigation into this observation. (J. du C. and Centre Matin, 21/10/1954)
October 20, 1968: Around 5 a.m., two people observing above Lake Pannecière, a sort of white disk hovering at an altitude of about 800 m and emitting a strong light. Suddenly, a large headlight sweeps the earth. The light is intense. For a few seconds, the witnesses are caught in the beam and dazzled. When they reopen their eyes, the object has disappeared. (J. du C., 10/22/1968)
July 19, 1976: A motorist, a ballistics engineer, observes a luminous green globe at a very low altitude, while he is crossing the town of Châteauneuf-Val-de-Bargis. When the beams of his vehicle's headlights hit the machine, it immediately rises and disappears. The Prémery gendarmerie conducted an investigation into this observation. (J. du C., Regional de Cosne, 30/07/1976)
July 1977: In Mars-sur-Allier (it was an appropriate name), an entire family observed in the sky, around 11 p.m., five objects intermittently projecting beams of lightning. They lost altitude before their eyes, and landed in a nearby meadow. The witnesses observed the phenomenon for a while and then went to bed. The next day, they found in the meadow about twenty circles as big as the bottom of a bucket, inside which the grass seemed to be burnt by the sun. Between four circles, the witnesses noticed a large dark spot. The Saint-Pierre-le-Moutiers gendarmerie noted the presence of these traces on the ground. (J. du C. 08/25/1977; La Montagne 08/24/1977
October 30, 1978: After hearing a high-pitched whistling sound, two female campers observed a strong red light for 15 to 20 seconds at around 2:45 a.m. The phenomenon repeated itself an hour later. The Lormes gendarmerie opened an investigation and noted the presence of a 5 m long trace in the shape of a rugby ball. (J. du C., 10/30/1978)
February 9, 1982: Several people observed from rue de Villemenant in Guérigny, a luminous sphere the size of a quarter moon, red in color, evolving at low altitude. It moved quickly towards the west in a series of small hops and by launching blue and green rays. The observation lasts nearly 30 minutes. (La Montagne, 11/2/1980)
November 5, 1990: A teacher from Cosnes-sur-Loire observes around 7 p.m., a white globe placed at the head of a triangle, composed of two other white-yellow globes preceded by several points of pink light. The whole thing moves at a very low altitude (100 to 200 m) and at a very slow speed. At the same time, a second observer notices several lights in the shape of a "V" moving very quickly and silently, at low altitude, around Chantenay-Saint-Imbert. Other testimonies from the gendarmerie confirm the vision of the phenomenon [reentry of Soviet rocket debris]. (J. du C., 11/7/1990
Nathalie MARX
While misinterpretations are common, hoaxes are less so. Most sightings of unidentified flying objects are attributed to: weather balloons, fog with reflection phenomena, fireworks, lightning, nighttime maneuvers of planes or helicopters, mirages in high heat, clouds of insects, satellites in orbit, re-entries of meteorites or spacecraft into the atmosphere. Enough to be mistaken...
