◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated
The Saint-Émilion Horseshoes (1953)
At about 3.45 in the afternoon of 9 December 1953 Charles Huaut, a carpenter from Saint-Émilion, watched a golden round object hang motionless high over the Gironde for ten minutes. Then without a sound it became several horseshoe shapes about 100 metres across, wrapped in trails of smoke, and the whole thing vanished. The story reached the CIA through a Bordeaux newspaper. This is the record of what was reported, not a verdict on what was over the vineyards.
◆ THE SHORT VERSION
- The Saint-Émilion Horseshoes (1953) is a reported UAP case in Saint-Émilion, Gironde, France, 9 December 1953, about 15:45.
- A Saint-Émilion carpenter, Charles Huaut, reported a luminous golden round object hanging motionless at great height for ten minutes on the afternoon of 9 December 1953.
- It then shifted without a sound into several horseshoe shapes about 100 metres across, wrapped in trails of smoke, and the whole phenomenon vanished, according to the Sud-Ouest report.
- The newspaper said several other people saw it at the same time; none of them is named.
- The account survives as a French newspaper item the CIA translated into a 1954 foreign-press digest, not as a CIA investigation.
- For this case Fractured Realities holds 1 distinct source and 1 claimant on its resolved list.
- The archive grades it L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT — the archive holds one account of it, from a single source.
Counts are resolved totals of what sources say, computed 2026-10-03; the reported details above are claims in the record, not findings. A record of reports, not a verdict on what happened.
EVENT DATE
9 December 1953, about 15:45
LOCATION
Saint-Émilion, Gironde · France
COORDS
44.89°N 0.16°W
INDEPENDENCE
L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT
SOURCES
1 distinct
CLAIMANTS
1
STATUS
Known from released government records
NUMBERS COMPUTED 2026-10-03 · RESOLVED COUNTS, NOT A VERDICT
