The article below was published in the daily newspaper Ouest France, France, on May 8, 2008.
Experts from the National Center for Space Studies are cross-referencing several testimonies collected in recent weeks. The latest reported case occurred this weekend on the Island of Yeu (Vendée).
LES SABLES-D'OLONNE. -- "I don't believe in the invaders. I just want to rationalize this because this story keeps running through my head." Since returning from the Island of Yeu, where he spent the weekend, Thibaut Chantegret has been trying to understand. On Saturday, May 3, this 34-year-old bank employee from Dijon and his father were taking a post-dinner walk along the breakwater of the island's marina. It was 10 p.m., and night was falling.
"There, towards the mainland, I saw this intensely bright sphere." Initially motionless above the sea, it then moved northward "at an ascension speed far greater than that of an airplane." And without any sound. Both men, who are also private pilots, were intrigued.
Two Other Sightings in Brittany
Five minutes later, as they drove toward Pointe du But on the western side of the island, another surprise: "We saw two more spheres, slightly larger than stars, this time out at sea." These spheres moved along the island toward the east, still without making a sound, before also shooting off toward the north.
It didn't stop there. More spheres appeared in the east, on the mainland side, "about 150 meters above the sea." And the pattern repeated: they traveled along the island toward the open sea, "just a few hundred meters from us," then shot off toward the north. "They remained visible for two to three minutes before disappearing behind the clouds," noted Thibaut Chantegret. In total, he counted eight flybys of up to three spheres at a time, at regular intervals of 40 to 50 seconds.
"I've never been interested in UFOs. But what I saw was strange enough to talk about. I'm probably not the only one who saw it!" Thibaut hopes. So far, no other testimonies have surfaced from the Islands of Yeu. But experts at GEIPAN (the Study and Information Group on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena) are taking his account very seriously, as it echoes two other reports collected in Brittany since mid-April.
R.G.
Note: It goes without saying that these "spheres" could have been Chinese lanterns.
