HISTORICAL

Trans-en-Provence case — Farmer Renato Nicolaï witnessed a lead-colored disc land in his garden in Provence. France's GEPAN (CNES) conducted soil analysis that detected unusual physical and biochemical changes at the landing site.

On the afternoon of January 8, 1981, a French farmer named Renato Nicolaï reported watching a lead-colored, disc-shaped craft descend and land briefly in his garden in the village of Trans-en-Provence in southern France. The incident is one of the most thoroughly scientifically investigated UFO landing cases on record, in part because France's official UFO research agency, GEPAN (later SEPRA, now GEIPAN, under the national space agency CNES), conducted a multi-laboratory analysis of the alleged landing site. 【Background】 Nicolaï, working in his garden in the late afternoon, heard a faint whistling sound and looked up to see an object roughly 2.5 meters in diameter descending in his field. He did not believe it was a UFO at the time — he thought it might be a military prototype. 【The Encounter】 The object landed briefly, sat on the ground for several seconds, and then lifted off with the same whistling sound. Nicolaï described it as a flattened sphere with a lead-gray color, looking like "two saucers stuck together at the rim". After it departed, he approached the landing site and found a circular pattern of compressed earth approximately 2.4 meters across. 【Investigation】 The French gendarmerie reported the case to GEPAN within 24 hours. Samples of soil and vegetation from the alleged landing site were taken and analyzed by multiple laboratories, including the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA). The analysis identified unusual physical effects: the soil had been heated to between 300°C and 600°C, and plants near the site showed biochemical changes — reduced photosynthetic activity and chlorophyll content — consistent with a strong mechanical and thermal disturbance. 【Modern Assessment】 Trans-en-Provence stands as the case for which the most physical evidence has been formally documented by an official government agency. Skeptics have proposed alternative explanations including a vehicle tire scrape or a localized agricultural disturbance, but the laboratory results — particularly the vegetation analysis — have resisted simple explanations. GEIPAN classifies it as a Category D case: of high strangeness and unexplained. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_case

43.5009°, 6.4866°

Source: Wikipedia