Valensole 1965: what the gendarmerie wrote down, and when

At dawn on 1 July 1965 a lavender farmer near Valensole, later named as Maurice Masse, reported a machine the size of a small car in his field. The gendarmerie heard of it by rumour the next evening, measured a hole and a cross of furrows, and six weeks later took a fuller account of two small beings and fifteen minutes of immobility.

43.8432° N · 5.9688° E · L'Olivol, Valensole · 1 Jul 1965

Source: France · GEIPAN

A machine in the lavender

According to his first statement to the gendarmerie, taken at 8 p.m. on 2 July 1965, a farmer from Valensole, in what was then the Basses-Alpes, left home at about 5:30 a.m. on 1 July for his lavender field at the place called L'Olivol, about two kilometres north-west of the village. At about 5:45, while he sat behind a pile of stones to smoke a cigarette, he heard a whistle, went to look, and saw a machine resting in his field ^[5]. The gendarmerie copies black out his name. The regional daily summary gives his age as 41 and his trade as farmer ^[4], and the COMETA report later named him as Maurice Masse ^[1].

He said the machine was the size of a Renault Dauphine car and matt in colour. Its shape, in our translation of his words, "resembled a rugby ball with a sliding door on the side". Through a transparent top he saw a person inside, while another, about a metre tall but heavily built, in what looked like a coverall, bareheaded and empty-handed, was already on the ground about sixty metres away ^[5]. That figure climbed back in, the machine left with a dull noise towards Manosque, and the farmer went on working ^[6].

At the spot he found soaked earth, star-shaped marks and a hole at the centre. He added that the machine had seemed to stand on six legs with a steel-coloured pivot in the middle, and that he had not said before, for fear of trouble, that the occupants seemed to be of European type ^[6]. GEIPAN's summary adds that when he came back that evening with his daughter the earth had become "dure comme du ciment" (translation: "hard as cement") ^[2].

Sa forme ressemblait à un ballon de rugby avec une porte à glissière sur le côté.

— The witness, gendarmerie statement (PV no. 445), 2 July 1965 [5]

Learned by rumour, a day and a half later

The gendarmes did not hear about it from the farmer. Their report says that at about 7:30 p.m. on 2 July the local brigade learned through public rumour that he claimed to have seen an aircraft of unknown design, and summoned him ^[5].

At 10 p.m. the company commander and the head of the research brigade arrived, and the group went to the field with the witness. They confirmed a hole where he said the machine had stood, but no other trace was visible: many curious visitors had trampled the ground before they arrived ^[6]. Questioned again at 11:15 p.m., he added that the machine had left at an angle and vanished faster than a flash, its six legs seeming to turn in the same direction as it took off ^[6].

On 3 July the Marseille regional command's daily summary to gendarmerie headquarters in Paris reported a farmer's account of a "flying saucer" type craft the size of a Dauphine with two passengers. It said a captain had found, in our translation, "traces possibly corresponding to an actual landing of the craft" ^[4]. Popular retellings, including an earlier version of this page, have Masse driving to the gendarmerie within minutes and a named commandant inspecting the field that same morning; the gendarmerie's own reports say the brigade learned of the sighting by rumour on the evening of 2 July, and they black out every name ^[5][6].

Sur place Capitaine a constaté traces pouvant éventuellement correspondre à pose effective engin.

— Regional gendarmerie command, Marseille, daily summary of 3 July 1965 (captain's name blacked out) [4]

What the gendarmes measured

The research brigade's report, PV no. 105, describes what it found that night in a field of loose, freshly hoed earth: a shallow bowl about 1.20 metres across. At its centre, in our translation, "was a cylindrical hole 18 centimetres in diameter and about forty centimetres deep". Four shallow furrows, each 8 centimetres wide and nearly two metres long, formed a kind of cross centred on the hole, and the earth there was compact ^[7].

Darkness stopped further work. GEIPAN notes that the brigade made its measurements and photographs on 3 July, and that no other clue was found around the site ^[2]. The reports describe no ring of landing-leg holes in a square and no scorched plants, two details common in later retellings.

The COMETA report of 1999 adds something not found in the gendarmerie pages GEIPAN published: that lavender along the object's flight path dried up over some hundred metres for several years, while the witness tried in vain to replant ^[1].

Au centre de cette cuvette se trouvait un trou cylindrique de 18 centimètres de diamètre et d'une quarantaine de centimètres de profondeur.

— Gendarmerie research brigade, PV no. 105, July 1965 [7]

Six weeks later, a fuller account

On 18 August 1965 the farmer returned to the brigade with more to say. He said that on 2 July he had not revealed everything he saw because, in our translation, "it was so extraordinary that I was afraid people would take me for a madman and have me locked up" ^[8]. He now said he had approached to about seven metres, and that both beings were on the ground, crouching, apparently looking at a lavender plant ^[8].

When one of them saw him, it gestured with an object in its hand, and he found himself unable to make any movement. He described two beings under a metre tall, with pumpkin-shaped heads three times the size of a man's, smooth skin, no hair and almost no neck, wearing dark one-piece suits with cases at the belt ^[9]. After four to five minutes they climbed in, the machine rose at an angle towards Voix and Manosque, faster than a jet on take-off, and he stayed immobilised for what he estimated as fifteen minutes ^[10].

He insisted he had felt no numbness, during or after, and that his only lasting effect was sleepiness: since 3 July he had been sleeping almost twice his usual six to seven hours ^[10]. COMETA's summary describes him as "numbed and paralyzed", acknowledges "a few contradictory elements" in his account, and says the gendarmes found nothing suggesting a hoax ^[1].

c'était tellement extraordinaire que j'ai eu peur que l'on me prenne pour un fou et que l'on me fasse enfermer.

— The witness, supplementary statement (PV no. 145), 18 August 1965 [8]

No GEPAN investigation

GEPAN, France's official unit for unidentified aerospace phenomena at the space agency CNES, was created only in 1977. GEIPAN, its successor, says its heads all took an interest in the case and collected documents, but never published an in-depth investigation, which would probably have yielded little so long after the event and after the work already done by the gendarmerie and by investigators including Pierre Guérin and Jacques Vallée ^[2].

In June 2015, for the fiftieth anniversary, GEIPAN put online what it called the most reliable documents in the affair, the three gendarmerie reports, noting that it had not yet officially published anything on the case ^[3]. Its case page lists the case as class D, a strange phenomenon of medium or strong consistency ^[2]. The 2015 note is more cautious: in our translation, "given its strangeness, this case is classed 'D' by default, to make searches easier for internet users" ^[3].

Vue son étrangeté, ce cas est classé « D » par défaut, pour faciliter les recherches des internautes.

— GEIPAN, "L'observation de Valensole 1965, cinquante ans après…", 26 June 2015 [3]

Last fact-checked: 2026-10-03. Every claim cites its source.