UFOs in the daily Press:

Does Villegouin Believe in UFOs?

Strange circle in the middle of a wheat field

KNOWN for its lake and green valley, for the majestic Château du Mée, for its farmers' market, and for its parade, Villegouin has been attracting a new kind of audience since July 25.

That evening, around 10 p.m., René Kulich, a farmer based at La Michellerie, and his harvest assistant discovered a curious geometric figure in a wheat field at Le Gouffre. As night fell, they stumbled upon a round shape imprinted in the crop. At its center, just like on the outer edges, the ears of wheat stood normally, ready to be harvested; but in between, there was this strange circle, thirteen meters in diameter, with a 2.5-meter-wide band of wheat that wasn't crushed but rather laid down in the same direction (clockwise).

In the village, the incident caused quite a stir, especially as some residents claimed to have heard strange noises coming from the sky.

The owners of the field, Gilbert Tourland and his son, could only observe the curious visual phenomenon, as many others had before them. In Berry, people don't confuse witchcraft with celestial manifestations. But while keeping their feet on the ground, some couldn't help but dream of a flying saucer, of the fleeting presence of UFOs in the sky over Villegouin, and on a sloping piece of land in a remote part of the village, one night in July 1993.

The gendarmes didn't take the event lightly. They visited the site several times, even bringing in a police dog from Châteauroux on Monday, August 2, to investigate.

All these events have delighted the local youth, who see it as an unexpected summer diversion. Julien Brocvielle, 10 and a half years old, whose father is René Kulich's nephew, eagerly plays the tour guide, astonished to see that dozens of curious visitors—many from outside the village—have flocked to the site.

The skeptics smirk knowingly, some recalling the hoax that two Englishmen, Douglas and David, pulled off for years, deceiving a wide audience. They used simple wooden planks and ropes to create geometric figures similar to the one in Villegouin, with perfect circles and wheat laid down but not crushed. To arrive and leave unnoticed, the two tricksters followed the tractor tracks.

So, was it local pranksters inspired by British hoaxers, or a mysterious cosmic event? The mystery remains... though the gendarmes, uninterested in publicity, have cordoned off the area with plastic tape to protect the site.

D. DARTIGUES