The article below was published in the daily newspaper Paris-Normandie, France, on July 26, 1994.
Last January, in Baux Sainte-Croix, the Noël family witnessed the passage of a UFO. And their lives changed...
On January 4, 1994, around 6:30 PM, Soizick Noël, 18 years old, sitting in the front seat of the car driven by her father, suddenly exclaimed: "A UFO!" After a brief moment of panic, her parents also observed the path of a black triangular mass, outlined by three red lights at its angles. The object made a 90-degree turn between the moment Soizick first saw it—coming from the right—and when the family saw it again, moving very low and silently toward the forest, where it disappeared.
"I immediately thought that if it was a plane, it was about to crash. But it wasn’t a plane—it was flying way too low, way too fast, and most importantly, in complete silence. Besides, we are used to seeing planes and we know the difference," said Loïc Noël.
The whole family is convinced that they witnessed a UFO that evening. "I have always believed that we couldn’t be alone in the universe," confided Soizick. "Seeing this phenomenon firsthand confirmed that belief. It was a wonderful moment."
Wonderful, yes—but the experience had psychological consequences for the young woman: recurring UFO-related dreams, in which she always tries, but fails, to photograph strange aerial phenomena related to her sighting. This has been happening for six months, except for a brief break during her baccalaureate exams.
Mr. Noël describes himself as a rational thinker, but after seeing the unidentified object with his own eyes, how could he not believe? The various explanations put forward have not satisfied any member of the family. However, believing in UFOs raises many questions: Where do they come from? Who controls them?
After witnessing the event, Soizick did not want to report it to the gendarmerie. Instead, she sketched the object she saw later that evening. A few days later, upon hearing a local radio station report that numerous unexplained phenomena had recently occurred in the region, she felt reassured but still remained silent.
Indeed, it is not always easy to take the risk of not being taken seriously. It was only in June, during an informational meeting on UFO sightings in Eure, that Soizick felt comfortable speaking out. The meeting included serious investigations from the International UFO Data Bank (Banque O.V.N.I.), other witness accounts, and explanations on how to avoid hoaxes. Encouraged by some attendees who urged people to come forward to help advance research, Soizick decided to contact Francis Nehou and submitted her testimony to the Banque O.V.N.I.. Recognized as a credible account, it was later published in the journal "Ufomania".
Endlessly fascinated by the topic of unexplained aerial phenomena, and firmly convinced that these events are the work of an extraterrestrial power, the Noël family has since gathered dozens of anecdotes related to the topic.
They have one wish left: to find other witnesses who may have seen the phenomenon on January 4, 1994, at 6:30 PM, on Route D.74 in Baux Sainte-Croix.
