The Valensole Affair - Humanoid Mischief in 1965

France has been one of the best places to find strange claims and ufological weirdness. I’d go as far as to say France is equal to the USA in the bizarre history of unlikely sightings of unusual critters. For example, they had the first known humanoid sightings wave back in 1954 that came to an end with over 200 alleged encounters involving more than 250 witnesses. Imagine minding your business and being interrupted by little people and their strange machines? Personally, I’d like to test the experience!

A lot of these reports described those familiar ‘little fellows’ with the over-sized heads – mischief makers. They may well have looked at us and wondered how we crammed our brains into such tiny skulls. Or even laughed that we could move and think at the same time with such oversized bodies. Alien prejudice no doubt!

Another well-known case happened in 1965 and I notice it’s escaped an ATS thread in all these years – the Valensole Incident. The basics are that a farmer disturbed two critters in his field one morning that pointed a paralysing device at him and then took off in their aircraft.

Once more the little folk were up to their tricks and a Monsieur Masse was about to have his world turned up-side down for a few days. He was a farmer in the Valensole area and had a good reputation in town – he’d been in the French Resistance, as a Maquis guerilla fighter, during the war and that attracts respect.



During the last week of June, Masse and his father had noticed his lavender beds were being disturbed in the night. Nothing significant, just the buds of some plants had been pulled off and scattered. Rabbits maybe? I guess a farmer would know rabbit mischief when he saw it. Whatever the case, Masse was alert to find out what was causing the disturbance, but not losing sleep about it. 'Comme ci comme ça...'

On the morning of the 1st of June, he was smoking behind a pile of fertiliser and his tractor when a whistling noise began and ended nearby. He stepped out to see what had caused the noise and saw a little more than he expected!



He saw a small, egg-shaped craft (described as Dauphine-sized - a French car) sitting on his field while two of the little people were trespassing in his lavender crops. Well, they were trampling away and picking his flowers so he decided to approach them. Being a farmer, chances are he was going to be rather abusive or charge them a fee for landing. Whatever his motivations, he headed on over to the big-headed little vandals…




One of the little tramplers looked up and produced a small tube to point at Masse. With barely a hesitation, the intruder aimed his device and the farmer was suddenly unable to move his arms, legs or mouth – frozen. The little fellows watched him for a while and then got in the aircraft and took off due west leaving M. Masse rooted to the ground for almost 20 more minutes.

When he was able to move, he saw they’d left a hole in the ground and 4 equidistant markings were the vehicle’s landing gear had been. He also thought he could discern a dried-out effect in the lavender plants in the area where the object had been and in the direction of its departure.



He went to Valensole and, still shaken, told his friend, the owner of a café, what had just happened. The story was later told to the local gendarmes (police) who went to the field and confirmed the markings and central hole. They interrogated Masse and had to accept that he believed what he said and there was no more to be said on the matter. Our poor farmer returned home and slept for 15 hours straight through, only being woken by his wife and daughter because they were worried.

Unsurprisingly, a small storm had been building during the night and by now the locals and the local press had become interested. The news travelled fast and within 3 days, it had made the national press and travelled as far as Washington. Masse took to his heels and left the area to get away from persistent journalists and the mockery being sent his way.

With his reputation and standing in the area, neighbours and the media didn’t believe he was hoaxing. The Gendarmerie didn’t think he was a hoaxer either. Instead, they believed an explanation must lie somewhere else. Some of these explanations might seem familiar to some ATS members!

The local Air Force claimed he had seen one of their helicopters landing although they themselves knew nothing about a helicopter landing.


The Washington Post claimed he’d misperceived a mundane example of French secret technology...



As fast as the excitement had begun, it was over within days...

Keeping a secret?

In the following weeks, Masse was approached by more journalists and UFO researchers. His case eventually landed up in the famous Cometa report (page 20) as a strong example of an unusual event. They noted that the lavender had failed to grow in the area in subsequent years. Masse never retracted his story and it generally remained intact and without embellishment over the years. One element that intrigued researchers is the fact that Masse kept a part of the incident to himself and wouldn’t tell anyone else about it – a secret.

We can only guess at what the secret was. He told his wife and daughter and that was all. Maybe he made up the story and couldn’t believe how far it had gotten out of hand? Maybe it was a genuine case of visiting Folk from Elsewhere? Or maybe, he thought he experienced something that only occurred on the level of perception – like a dream. If it was a dream, was it triggered by something we know about or from Elsewhere?

He once remarked that the small fellows were good people; he had a conviction they meant no harm. Now, this is interesting because he didn’t include details of communication with them. A year earlier, in the USA, our old friend Gary Wilcox (from last year's Martians thread) had had a very similar experience. Also a farmer, he’d been surprised to find two little guys in his field, next to a small, egg-shaped craft. These two apparently told him a secret and asked him to keep it.



Links & Sources -
Caravaca Files - 1954 Humanoids in France
Ufologie - 1954 French Flap
Valensole - UFO Evidence
Flying Saucer Review - Vol 11; No 6
Classic case: Valensole incident (IsaacKoi thread)

Good post - this is a genuine incident if you ask me.

UFO Investigator Ted Phillips includes this case on his list of Top Physical Trace Cases.

reply to post by thesearchfortruth
I tend to think that *something* happened, but I don't know what that might be.

The frequency with which the 'little people' were described in the 50s and 60s seems like a mystery all by itself. Too much conformity to be put down to pure hoaxers and too little conformity to be sure of the reality of the accounts. So many have been described as small folk with larger heads and proportionally smaller mouths and noses.

It's all about the 'Greys' these days, but they used to have very human-looking eyes (slight size differences) until the late 1970s. Story-telling can build its own momentum, we know. On the other hand, these features have been described since early in the 50s across the Western world.

A entertaining story with a true ring to it.

Those aliens also looked very much like the ones I have met.

Lavenders where have I heard that before.... Idk something about a chemical fr them that have a very unique ability I'm must do some research now.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Hi Kandinsky , on the face of it an amusing story , my first thought was was Monsieur Masse smoking behind a pile of fertiliser or smoking a pile of fertiliser , but the date and description rang a bell so I had to dig deeper .

It may just be me but I see comparisons with the Lonnie Zamora incident a year earlier , egg shaped craft landing in a field with two occupants and leaving 4 indentations on the ground ... no lavender though

Artists impression of Zamora craft

Measurements taken by police verified that there were 4 indentations on the ground; the distance between them formed a quadrilateral whose diagonals intersected at exactly 90 degree angles.
www.ufocasebook.com...

Probably no connection but possibly interesting maybe .
S+F for finding another new to me report mate

reply to post by gortex
Yeah, it's an oldie, but I reckoned ATS should have a reasonably detailed thread on Valensole. Not quite generating any interest though - Sunday afternoon wasted!

I agree with the similarities to Zamora's report. Egg-shaped little object and a couple of intergalactic reprobates up to no good! They may have been gathering soil samples to put in a pot and then wanted some lavender to go in the pot. Gary Wilcox donated the fertiliser and helped to brighten up their Dauphine-sized run-around.

More 'National Lampoon-style' mischief than the pillaging in this old rendering...

Sunday afternoon wasted!

Not in my view ,nor according to Jacques Vallee who described it as, "the best-authenticated close encounter incident in continental Europe"

I found a picture of the landing site.

The calcium content of the soil, taken from the site, was much higher then in soil taken from other areas of the field (Phenomenes Spatiaux 1966:26) Masse reploughed the landing site and replanted, but these plants also died.
naturalplane.blogspot.co.uk...

Looks like I'm not the only one to draw comparisons with the Zamora Socorro object either ..

Aime Michel visited Masse on Aug 8,1965, and at the end of the interview showed Masse a drawing of the Socorro object which Masse took to be his object.
naturalplane.blogspot.co.uk...

post by Kandinsky
One element that intrigued researchers is the fact that Masse kept a part of the incident to himself and wouldn’t tell anyone else about it – a secret.

It seems the secret may have been that he had some sort of communication with them .

Subsequently, Masse confided that in the course of the encounter he experienced some sort of communication with the entities.
science.howstuffworks.com...

Quality case , makes a refreshing change just recently so time well spent mate

reply to post by Kandinsky


So did you become a believer again? This part saying France is like UFO central for Europe sounds like every French movie where they promote that French-everything is the best. This trend is typical for the French, you can see it almost everywhere.

I cannot comment on a story that I barely know anything about, from what I see so far, it is another bogus story. Definitely more interesting that sci fi but still a story,.

Excellent thread! S + F. I love when members such as yourself share these little gems with ATS in such an easy to read/follow way! I have nothing to add....but I loved the read. Also read your thread on the martians and their pancakes. That was great!

Good stuff keep 'em coming.

Oh, and Sunday afternoon NOT wasted! Not on me anyways.

reply to post by seeker11

I have nothing to add....but I loved the read.

Well, it doesn't matter at all with the witness being dead and the case happening before most of us were even born. I'm glad you enjoyed it so thanks for letting me know.

Also read your thread on the martians and their pancakes. That was great!

Alongside the Damon, Texas sheriffs case, that was my favourite thread to write. The accounts were innocent and didn't have all that baggage we get nowadays. Fair enough, they happened in the middle of Cold War tensions, but they seem to come from a sort of golden age when weirdness could be mainstream news. Thanks again

@ Imtor - I starred your post for spreading your own brand of positivity on ATS.

reply to post by gortex
Nice one on the pictures

Here's what Vallee wrote in his book, Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact. A quick google *might* find a cheaper opportunity if someone added 'pdf' to the search...ahem....cough...whistles and walks away...

great post S&F
thanks for taking time to research and post . Sunday not wasted

I remember reading about this case in one of Jacque Vallee's books I think. Very interesting indeed. And physical evidence too. What to say? Either the guy actually saw what he said he saw and experienced or he somehow hoaxed the whole thing. I wish it had happened to me!

reply to post by Kandinsky


Very Interesting post. I've read a lot of UFO cases, but I've never heard of this one before.

Instead, they believed an explanation must lie somewhere else. Some of these explanations might seem familiar to some ATS members!

I'm sure one will pop up somewhere in response to this thread.

reply to post by gortex


The guy that did that illustration should be shot. I am familiar with that software and immediately notice that the shed and the mountain are floating above the ground.

Cool story though.

People came out and admitted hoaxing the Zamora sighting. I heard it on Coast to Coast AM one morning. It seems it was a college prank.

Originally posted by groingrinder
People came out and admitted hoaxing the Zamora sighting. I heard it on Coast to Coast AM one morning. It seems it was a college prank.

Seriously? It must have been quite an undertaking. I'd have to get the details of that before I'd buy it. Hard to understand how the Zamora case could be the result of a "college prank", but I'm definitely willing to hear out that possibility. Any chance you could direct us toward the C2C you heard that on?

And Kaminsky, this thread was definitely time well-spent. Top notch presentation. It's been a while since I've read about this case, but I think I recall reading that the witness kind of got the feeling the beings were "making fun of him" while he was paralyzed - just in a benign, light-hearted way. Reading about the mid-century CEIIIs is always a bizarre venture. I get to thinking that this stuff is just too odd to have actually occurred, but there is a good amount of consistency in the craziness.

Thanks for your effort.

reply to post by Kandinsky

Good work. Good find. Never heard this one either. Trace evidence case with pics no less. And a story that has parallels to other stories that are separated by time and space. Gortex brought this one from the same case:


naturalplane.blogspot.co.uk...

Heres another:


ufocasebook.com...

Although different in many details the two have similarities when it comes to trace evidence and effects on the ground underneath where the craft was "landed".

The Kansas case has never been debunked either.

Another excellent report, thankyou...

They certainly appear to be the classic "Greys" in uniform.

Im intrigued by the take off, and "Suddenly Disappearing".

The physical evident seem to be true, so one could guess the whole story is true as well.

Very similar to the Westall school UFO sighting of April 1966, which also left similar physical evidence.

www.theage.com.au...

(There are some good threads on ATS about this Westall encounter, so please people, dont start any more).

Seriously, I wonder...The Beings are obviously here, and have some "Empathy" with Nature.........Plantes etc. (except maybe cows).

I wonder what their reaction could be to the knowledge that, when their craft land, they alter/hurt the Earth and plant life for years to come......seems strange they pick plants, but then scortch the Earth.....I wonder if they really know??
I guess humans do the same, conservationalists pick up plants, but drive their wopping great SUV things all over the land killing other plants...oh well, all in the name of science.