Valensole Landing — French Gendarmerie Physical Evidence Report

On July 1, 1965, lavender farmer Maurice Masse was working at dawn on his property near Valensole, France when he observed a craft the size and shape of a Dauphine automobile resting on six leg-like struts in his lavender field. Two small humanoid entities (about 4 feet tall, with large heads and small mouths) stood nearby. Masse approached silently, believing they were boys stealing lavender. When he was approximately 20 feet away, one entity pointed a tube-shaped device at him; Masse became paralyzed and could not move for approximately 20 minutes. The craft then rose vertically with a whistling sound and disappeared. The French Gendarmerie (national police) responded and conducted a formal investigation lasting several weeks. Officers documented a hardened cylindrical depression in the soil at the landing site approximately 18 inches wide, 12 inches deep. Soil analysis found elevated calcium content and compressed soil structure consistent with extreme weight. The lavender crop at the exact contact point failed to grow for ten years. Masse was interviewed multiple times over years; his account remained consistent. The CNES (French space agency) later included the Valensole case in the founding dataset for its GEPAN/GEIPAN official UAP investigation office established in 1977. Gendarmerie files were declassified and transferred to GEIPAN archives.