France, 2006. May was particularly cold, the meteorologists talked about a prolonged winter. On June 1st, it snowed in the Vosges, which is rather exceptional.
The crop circles makers thus remained home until the first warm days, and the first crop circle in France this year was discovered on May 29.
The formation is in a wheat field at the edge of a road and is very simple: there are only four circles, reached by "tramlines", the traces of farming machinery making it possible to the artists to enter the field without leaving too visible traces. The largest circle barely has the width of the two-lane road.
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The formation is very close to National Road 60, there are only 5 circles of which three are connected by a line, and 4 traces on the sides, of which one is wrongly oriented. The drawing is inspired by the Hollywood blockbuster "Signs" which allotted the crop circles to the extraterrestrial ones and was shown again days before on French TV.
It is again a very easy to realize formation. A tramline is right in the axis of the formation, the dimensions are modest. With a team of three, a formation of this type is made in much less than an hour.
The formation est is in a barley field just next to the farming school of the Chesnoy.
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In the Press:
Whereas proponents of a paranormal or extraterrestrial origin of the crop circles claim that "media hush up the phenomenon", the formations had the honors of the Press.
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An article in the usual ambiguous style on this type of topic tells of a "strange vision", "weird shapes", "perfect, geometrical, complex" (actually imperfect and simple) and "sorts of prints left on the ground... by UFOs?" Instead of clearly giving as another alternative a realization by men, they just tell: "unless they are nothing else than the exact counterparts of the famous signs of the movie precisely entitled "Signs" and shown these last days on TV. Mystery..." Why mystery? The article says that the investigation by the police "leans towards this second thesis," and finishes on the usual mention of "little green men."
Another article headlines on page 1 "Traces that came from elswhere land in the wheat in La Couarde". Crop circles that land, wow! The title of the article on page 24: "The supernatural settles in Deux-Sèvres". A "joke by a nightbird" is evoked las possible explanation, but the Mayor "smiles and remains perplexed, saying "you could imagine anything"", which the journalist does by talking of "swirls", "strange, supernatural", and "grassroot investigators" who "remain perplexed." Other delirious explanations suggested: the blow of an helicopter or "a climatic episode."
Still another article tells that an archaeologist flew over the formation and that "the scientific theory of the mysterious crop circles already observed elsewhere is advanced." The archaeologist, Jean Luc Audé, tells that it cannot be done by pranksters talks of a "natural effect". Audé saw his first crop circle there...
Obviously, as opposed to what "believers" claim, not only these circles were not hushed up, but we are suggested that it is alien or paranormal or whatever other mystery!
And that, for formations of an obvious simple design like pranksters did in England in the early nineties. The newspapers play the "woo whoo" angle, the "paranormal" and silly explanations, from "little green men" to "UFO landing traces" or " helicopters" and other "climatic episodes".
