The Crescent by the Copse

At 9.52 on the morning of 8 December 1979 two people looking out from their home saw an object about 200 metres away. It was shaped like a crescent, navy blue and white, with no shine to it. They judged it four to five metres tall. It sat at ground level beside a small wood and rocked gently from side to side. There was no noise and no particular light. After a minute and a half it took off fast towards the north and was gone.

Neither the witnesses nor the gendarmes after them found any trace on the ground.

What is on the record

The source is GEIPAN's file on the case. Its one-line summary reads "objet de 4 à 5 mètres de hauteur, oscillant" (an object four to five metres high, swaying), silent, on a rising path. Two witness questionnaires sit with it. They come from a woman of 40 and a man of 50, who both place the object 200 metres from the house and give the same time. One records the colour as blue, the other as blue and white. Both questionnaires are filed under the neighbouring commune of Varois-et-Chaignot.

GEIPAN's page gives no hypotheses it tested and no reasoning beyond the description. It files the case in class D, which means GEIPAN investigated and could not explain what was seen.

Why it sits where it does

The page grades L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT. GEIPAN withholds its witnesses' identities, so the record carries no identified witness even though two people saw the object. A tier measures sourcing, not the quality of the investigation. What stood beside the copse is not resolved here.