UFO Case Report:

Large reddish disc seen at close range in Draguignan, France

Date: March 29, 1971
Location: Draguignan, France

Two young men from Draguignan named Pierre Calafat and Andre Bouchaud, members of a dance band, go to an isolated house which they have rented. When they drive up to the house, they observe a large reddish disc, flying around above a vineyard beside the house, about 150 metres from them. They park and watch the UFO performing zigzag movements, and then see it come to a halt at a height of ten metres or so above the ground and only about 50 metres from them.

Reconstitution of Calafat's and Bouchard's sighting of March 29, 1971. On the left the house, rented by the musicians, and in which poltergeist phenomena occurred. Photo taken facing N.E. (FSR)

Classification & Features

Type of Case/Report: StandardCase
Hynek Classification: CE1

Full Report / Article

Source: J.C. Dufour, FSR Vol. 19 No. 3

A FRENCH REPEATER CASE: EVENTS AT LES NOURRADONS

J. C. Dufour

Translation: Gordon Creighton.

[excerpt from article]

MANY investigators of the UFO phenomenon have already noted that certain places seem to be more favoured than others by this type of manifestation. Examples of such so-called "repeater-cases," or "repeater-places," have been emphasised by Jacques Vallee in the USA, by Aime Michel in France, and by Antonio Ribera in Spain.

Lumieres Dans La Nuit has carried material concerning certain regions in the Departement of Doubs (extreme eastern frontier of France, adjoining Switzerland) which seem to be frequently overflown by UFOs, or which have been the scene of particularly interesting landing cases.

We have now discovered a similar site in the vicinity of Draguignan, in the Departement of Var (S.E. France). Lumieres Dans La Nuit (Contact Ixctcurs) No. 4, November 1971, carried an excellent report by Messieurs Jean Chasseigne and Francois Moll1 on one of the Draguignan sightings, which had taken place on March 29, 1971.

I will recapitulate the facts briefly: two young men from Draguignan named Pierre Calafat and Andre Bouchaud, members of a dance band, go to an isolated house which they have rented for the purpose of practising there. On the evening in question, these two are the first to arrive. As soon as they start to drive up the little road leading to the house, they notice a reddish light overhead. Then they observe a large reddish disc, having the shape of a plate, flying around above a vineyard situated beside the house and at a distance of some 150 metres from them (Photo I). They park in the forecourt and watch the UFO performing zigzag movements, and then see it come to a halt at a height of ten metres or so above the ground and only about 50 metres from them. Then, two minutes later, the craft performed a roll and headed away towards Flayosc, which is in the same direction from Les Nourradons as Valensolc.

It was not until September II, 1971, that we found the traces left by this UFO (Photos 2, 3, 4, 5).

These traces are in the field which adjoins the vineyard on the north. The grass there is long, of the graminaceous sort, and very thick. When we found the marks they were so fresh still that they could not have been made in March, but much later, and in any case they could not in all probability have been more than two weeks old. The chief mark is a perfect circle with a diameter of 5'6O metres. Inside this circle the grass is discoloured. The vegetation is flattened only along the periphery of this circle, or, to be more precise, the grass is swept in an anti-clockwise sense. The width of this flattened ring is about 0-6 metre (see photo No. 1). "Inere were no holes in ihe ground, and no marks that would indicate that an actual landing occurred. To the east of this principal mark there was a second circle, about one metre in diameter, and presenting the same discoloration of the grass. The distance between the large circle and the small one was one metre. A Geiger check for radioactivity gave a zero reading.

In the vineyard itself, we found no burn marks.

Two trees, an almond-tree and a cherry-tree, were dead—still in bud. But as the analysis has not yet been carried out, we do not know whether these two trees died of some disease, or as a result of the UFO fly-over of March 1971.

While looking through the archives of the newspaper Le Provencal (Var edition) we found a UFO sighting report of 1965. Ami the place overflown is the same....

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So it looks as though there might bs a good many areas in which the UFOs have the greatest interest. We shall have taken a big step forward when we are able to know what it is that attracts them to these places. In the meantime, we are going to concentrate our UFO detectors on this area of Les Nourradons, which has been the scene of a wave—or perhaps one should say, a "cluster"-since 1966. Maybe we shall get some valuable information. At least, that is, if our unobtrusive visitors are good enough to let us have the necessary time for it.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

1 See Investigations At Draguignan, by Chasseignc and Moll, in f-'SR Case Histories, Supplement 14, April 197.1.

- Note that this young man Christian Fabre of Lorgues, who saw a craft "shaped like a flattened cone" near Draguignan in November 1965, is the same person who appears in Case No. 4 at Draguignan in March 1968, when he saw a glowing cigar-shaped craft drop down out of the sky over the centre of Draguignan. (See Chasseigne and Moll, op. cit., Case No. 4.)

3 "Holy Spirit Field."

4 "Field of the Spirits."

Case ID: 593 edit: 593

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