Northeast / Sanpuits, FR being encounter — August 1954

In a 1980 interview, René S. recalled an encounter during a childhood camp near Château de Flassy and Montagne des Alouettes, northeast of Sainpuits. He was about eight. Between ten and fifteen children and a young adult counsellor noticed an orange glow after dark and approached through bushes, initially expecting a campfire. He could not settle whether this happened in summer 1953 or 1954; the catalogue’s August 1954 date is more precise than his recollection. He described an aluminium-coloured disc like two joined plates, three to five metres wide, hovering about half a metre above the ground. Orange lights circled its rim and a truncated opening glowed above. Four small figures wore very dark maroon, diver-like outfits, face coverings and long webbed feet. Two were above the craft; two on the ground appeared to scrape vegetation with a hoe and collect it in a bag. When a child cried out, the ground figures reportedly rose headfirst along curved paths into the upper opening. The light closed off, the disc tilted and departed silently within seconds. This detailed version differs from the catalogue’s two outside occupants. Investigators had not independently located the other campers, leaving a single adult’s recollection approximately twenty-six years later.