Bedarrides, FR being encounter — September 27, 1973

At about 5:30 p.m. on September 27, 1973, an anonymous mushroom picker on Mont Réal near Bédarrides reported seeing a small figure at the edge of a clearing, roughly one hundred feet away. A second, similar figure joined it while the first appeared to pick something from the ground. The hill was wooded with pines, firs and dense undergrowth. The figures were described as about four feet tall but otherwise human in appearance, with slender limbs, ordinary hands, beige coveralls reaching the wrists and neck, and black berets. Their feet were hidden by grass. Thinking they were children, the witness called out. They reportedly laughed, turned and disappeared into the brush. A few seconds later a dull blue-gray oval object, estimated at five metres wide, rose beyond the trees, paused about twenty feet up, and rapidly departed northeast after a faint whistle. Flattened grass and a bush were later interpreted as a possible hovering site. Jean Bastide’s account appeared in MUFON UFO Journal 118, citing Ouranos and Lumières dans la Nuit. The imported phrase about the figures gathering mushrooms is uncertain: the witness was collecting mushrooms, while what the figures picked up was unidentified. The image combines successive moments rather than claiming all were simultaneously visible.