by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”
There are two cases out of France, around the time of the 1973 United States humanoid wave, that are remarkably similar in some aspects and occurred within a few months of each other. The first case, from 1973, shows up in the second edition of the Center for UFO Studies publication by David Webb, titled 1973—The Year of the Humanoids (page 16 of the pdf), and the second case, from 1974, shows up in the 1976 book by Jim and Coral Lorenzen, titled UFO Occupants (page 61 of the pdf.)
The first encounter reportedly occurred in Puy-Verday in late September or early October 1973. According to Webb, who lists this as a “first-hand investigation,” the witness was riding a motorcycle on his way to work when it “misfired and stopped” as a bright light appeared up ahead. The witness saw a luminous oval object hovering above the ground with smoke underneath.
A humanoid appeared and came towards the witness. It put its hand on his shoulder and offered “reassuring words.” The creature is described as being thin, about 2 meters (6’-6”) tall, and wearing an aluminum-colored uniform with a helmet resting on its shoulders that had a tube like a snorkel on its right side. The face looked like it was covered with a nylon stocking that had slits for the eyes. The creature was carrying what looked like a pistol that it held pointing down.
The creature asked the witness where he was going and the witness answered, “To my job.” The creature then returned to the craft, telling the witness not to look at it too closely. It went underneath the craft and entered it. The craft rose straight up and then moved off. The motorcycle was then able to start “normally.”
The second case reportedly occurred on February 28, 1974. We looked for the original source of the story and found the report by the French investigators, MM. Bigorne, Chappat, et Fourtouil that was published in the November 1974 Lumieres Dans La Nuit No. 139 (page 5 of the pdf).
According to the report, titled “Les événements d’ORIGNY-EN-THIERACHE et de FOIGNY (Aisne) Semaine du 24 Février au 2 Mars 1974,” the witness was a simple man who was 59 years old and was aged by the hard labor of his job as a forge worker. According to the investigators, “the witness absolutely did not believe all that nonsense about ‘flying saucers,’ and knew nothing of the UFO phenomenon.” The investigators describe the witness as being reluctant to speak with them to the point of actually “fleeing” from them. According to them, they were only able to meet with him after exchanging letters with his wife and one of his sons. Because of this, their investigation took place around two months after the reported incident.
At 5:30 a.m., on Thursday, February 28, 1974, the witness was on his motorcycle riding to work. He was on RN 363 just leaving the hamlet of Routières. He rounded a bend and crossed the bridge over the river Thon and then found himself suddenly stopped and “nose to nose” with two “cosmonauts,” which is how he referred to them.
The witnessed was confused because he didn’t remember slowing down or braking. He put a foot down on the ground to stay upright, and the creatures were on both sides of him holding the handlebars. He described them as being about 1.7 meters tall (5’-6”) and said they wore what looked like astronaut uniforms with square helmets that had openings for their faces. He couldn’t see their features because the inside of the helmets were dark and it seemed like their faces were covered. He said they wore five-fingered gloves which ended up at their shoulders like those worn by “inseminators.”
Off to his left, the witness noticed a dark, circular mass, the size of two cars, in the grass below the level of the road. He assumed that this was the creatures’ ship.
The creatures started gesticulating, and he thought they might have been trying to tell him they needed food. The witness is described as panicking at this point and the creatures as turning their helmets and looking at each other.
The creature on the left made a signal, and the one on the right started searching for something with its hand behind its back. It then showed the witness something that was the size and color of a chocolate (the witness is said to have called it a chocolate) in its right hand and indicated with its left hand that the witness should eat it.
The witness is described as being “completely panicked” at this point and he took the piece, put it in his mouth, and ate it. The “chocolate” is described as having no taste and being softer than an actual chocolate.
The creatures watched the witness as he ate, waited for him to finish, and then let go of the motorcycle. He took the opportunity to immediately ride away without looking back. He couldn’t remember whether his engine had been stopped or not.
According to the investigators, when the witness got to work, he was acting strangely, having been traumatized by the encounter, and his co-workers questioned him. He “innocently” told them about his encounter and he was ridiculed, and this caused him to fall into a depression.
Regarding possible trace evidence from what might have been a landed craft, the investigators report that neither the witness, his wife, nor their two sons went to the location to investigate, but there were neighbors and “colleagues” who did, and they found crushed grass in the area the witness described.
According to the investigators, for a week and a half around the time of the reported encounter, witnesses in Routières reported seeing red, luminous balls appear at the top of a facing slope that would suddenly shoot down the slope and then go up the opposite slope and disappear behind the woods.
Another witness, Mr. Theeten, reported seeing a yellow-orange, cigar-shaped object to the gendarmerie, who came out to investigate. A week later, according to the investigators, he saw a flashing red light, described as “a big fire,” in a meadow. According to the report, it stopped blinking every time he approached and he gave up after the third try.