What happened
On July 1, 1965, at about 5:45 a.m., Maurice Masse, a lavender grower from Valensole, heard a whistling sound and saw in his field an oval object the size of a car, shaped like a rugby ball and standing on several thin legs. Next to it stood two small figures with large heads. When Masse approached, one of them pointed a wand-like object at him, and the farmer was immobilized. After a moment, the beings returned to the object, which flew away silently. Masse was unable to move for more than ten minutes, and at the landing site the ground was hardened, while the lavender withered for years afterward and would not grow back. The gendarmerie investigated the case, and the press gave it enormous publicity.
Witnesses
Maurice Masse, the only direct witness; the traces in the field were examined by gendarmes and neighbors.
Explanations and hypotheses
The gendarmerie found no evidence of a hoax, and Masse, regarded as a reserved man, did not seek publicity and was reluctant to talk about the case. Skeptics suggested he might have seen a helicopter or experienced a hallucination, but the changes in the soil have not been convincingly explained. The case remains one of the most famous French close encounters of the third kind.
Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.