The Orange Globe at La Meilleraye

It was around 1.30 on the morning of 3 May 1997 and a couple had just come home from work. One of them noticed a point of light brighter than the stars. It grew quickly and came towards them at speed. Close up it was a large, fairly round luminous mass, orange and very intense. It passed just above the housing estate, heading from north to south, and was lost to the south. There was no engine noise, only the sound of air being pushed aside as it went over. The sighting lasted about five minutes.

What is on the record

GEIPAN is the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates unidentified aerial phenomena. It holds this case as MEILLERAYE DE BRETAGNE (44) 1997 and classes it D. Class D means GEIPAN investigated and could not explain what was seen. Its own summary ends plainly: no explanation could be found.

The main document on file is a gendarmerie report, released with names blacked out. The pair came forward ten days later. They told the gendarmes the light was probably not an aircraft, and their two accounts agreed. They put it about 100 metres above the houses on a clear, windless, starry night. When a car passed on the road behind them the glow dimmed, and two paler lights showed inside it. The local mayor vouched for them as people of good standing. No similar report came in from the area, and the gendarmes could not determine what it was. The report names the estate as Les Vorajoux, which lies in neighbouring Grand-Auverné, and GEIPAN files both testimonies under Grand-Auverné. The GEIPAN page itself tests no hypotheses.

Why it sits where it does

L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT. GEIPAN withholds the identities of its witnesses, and the released report blacks out their names, so the record carries no identified witness. The tier measures sourcing, not the quality of the inquiry. What crossed the estate is not resolved here.