This article was published in the daily newspaper Le Provençal, France, page 1, July 3, 1965.
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DIGNE. (From our special correspondent Victor Nathan.)
The village of Valensole, in the Low-Alps, in the middle of an immense plate of lavender, is in agitation, one can even say that it is a revolution. One of these mysterious objects, that the American call of the name of "not identificated flying object" [sic], unidentified flying objects, is said to have landed on the plate, the morning of the day before yesterday.
The rumour spread wildly, and already hundreds of people went to visit the place where this landing would have taken place, conscientiously trampling the lavender fields.
How this rumour was spread, and what belief [sic] can be granted to it?
Initially, there is an resident of Valensole, a farmer, Mr. Maurice Masse, 41 years old, married, father of two old children. He is a solid mind, a serious man who generally does not talk in vain.
Thursday morning, thus, he left home, Place of the Market in Valensole, to go to his grounds. It was approximately 5 a.m., Mr. Masse wanted to benefit from the freshness of the morning. He went to the district of the Olivol, within two kilometers approximately in the North-West of Valensole, near the road of Oraison.
And there, it began the hoeing of his lavender seedlings. Around 05:45, he stopped one moment to smoke a cigarette, going into shade of a small ground hillock. He had been there for a few minutes hardly, when he heard a strange noise, rather a whistling sound; which intrigued him passably. He thought that this noise was due to an helicopter apparatus or something else and that maneuvers took place by there.
His first thought was:
"It could have landed somewhere else than in my lavenders." He circumvented the hillock behind which he had sheltered, and at this point in time he was the witness of an absolutely surprising display, unexpected and somewhat terrifying.
See the continuation on last page under the headline A "SAUCER".
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3. Continuation of the first page.
Mr. Maurice Masse gave us in person the story of this strange vision, not without reservations, we must say, vecause he is afraid, obviously, to bring troubles upon himself.
However, this story, he was to confirm it in front of the chief of the police Oliva, commander of the brigade of Valensole:
I saw, he entrusted us, within approximately thirty meters of myself, a strange vehicle which had a shape vaguely like a football. It had the volume of a Dauphine [medium sized French car], approximately, and was of matt color.
It was posed on four sorts of metallic legs and a central pivot.
"I thought, Mr. Masse told us, of a monstrous spider. On the ground, was a human being of the size and stoutness of a 8 year old child approximately. He had a combination, but no helmet and his hands were naked. Inside the apparatus, I could see another being. Suddenly, the one who was ont the ground turned and saw me, he immediately jumped in the apparatus. A sliding door was closed again behind him and the machine took off at an incredible speed, without release of any smoke nor dust, in a split second it was finished, I had lost sight of it.
"I couldn't believe my eyes, and yet, Mr. Masse claimed, I did not dream, and I never have visions. I give you the formal insurance that the display I witnessed really occurred in front of my eyes.
With the gendarmes of Valensole, we went on the spot of the landing. There is no doubt that something went by there. On the site of the pivot, you can now see, in the ground, an opening of 20 centimeters in diameter and 50 centimeters deep approximately. From there, traces in the shape of an X which would seem to confirm the version of the four legs of the apparatus.
But, the strangest thing, it is that all around the opening, the ground is like petrified, hard like cement, whereas elsewhere it crumbles and crushes in dust under your fingers.
"But, Mr. Masse told us, immediately after the departure of the apparatus, the ground had a consistency almost liquid mud. All the more strange, owing to the fact that it did not rain here for a long time."
As one can imagine, this story caused a big commotion, and one awaited, in the evening, the arrival of captain Valnet, commander of the Company of the Gendarmerie of Digne.
