The UFO incident in the Draguignan region of France in the spring of 1971 remains unexplained today almost half a century later. It was an incident that had two witnesses – each a member of a band – who would see events unfold while on their way to a prearranged band practice in an unoccupied house.

What’s more, especially when we examine several other very similar accounts in the exact same region, there appears to be evidence that this part of the world may be host to fault lines. The same lines that some researchers suggest are part of a world energy grid. One that was known in ancient times and shares an apparent connection to UFO activity, both now and in the distant past.

The account was translated by veteran researcher, Gordon Creighton, and appeared in the Volume 19, number 3 edition of Flying Saucer Review magazine. While there are several versions of this incident online, they all appear to be direct replications of this Flying Saucer Review account. However, in the Supplement 14 Flying Saucer Review Case Histories edition of April 1973, a much more detailed account is presented.

A Glowing Red Object On A Small And Quiet Road

Pierre Calafat and Andre Bouchaud, aged 25 and 23 respectively, were on their way to an “isolated house” on the evening of 29th March 1971 in order to meet the other members of the dance band they were a part of. The property, which was in the countryside of Draguignan in France, had no others around it and sat at the end of a quiet road.

These conditions were ideal for the dance band, who planned to use the house as a practice base to perfect their routines. The isolation of the property meant the volume of their music and the stomping of their steps would not be a problem for any neighbors.

On this particular night in question, though, at around 9 pm, with the other band members yet to arrive, Calafat and Bouchaud would experience one of the strangest nights of their lives. As they turned their vehicle on to the small road that led to the house, they witnessed a strange “reddish light” overhead and in front of their vehicle.

The two young men watched the strange glow for a moment or two longer before bringing their vehicle to a stop. With the car now stationary, they stared out of their respective windows. It was clear to both of them that the glowing light wasn’t the result of an airplane or a helicopter. Each of them could now see that the object was “more or less a round shape, emitting a dark red light”.

The descriptions they would give of the crafts were intriguing. And although they differed slightly – for example, Bouchaud would describe the object as being like “a plater superimposed upon another” while Calafat would state it was like “a plate seen from underneath” – each was clearly seeing the same thing.

An Unintended Signal?

They would also each estimate the object to be around 30 to 50 feet across. And despite their slight discrepancies on the basic shape of the object, each would assert that the glow was most definitely visible on the underside of the craft.

Bouchaud would ask his friend to switch off the car headlights, recalling in his mind a previous UFO encounter he had witnessed several years earlier. In error due to his unfamiliarity of the car, Calafat turned the lights to “full-beam”, then dipped them before finally dimming them. Whether accurate or not, the witnesses would contend that this unintended action might have been interpreted as a signal.

Almost immediately following the slight debacle with the lights, the object rose straight up into the air before completing what appeared to be a “Z-shaped movement” overhead. It would repeat this twice more.

The two men watched these movements for several moments before they put the car into the car and set out once more to complete the rest of their journey to the rent and unoccupied house. When they arrived outside the property a short time later, the glowing red object was still perfectly visible overhead.

Perhaps of even more concern was the fact it was now lower to the ground and a little more than 150 feet from their location. As unnerved as this closer proximity undoubtedly made both men, they each stared at the bizarre craft, taking in as much detail as they could.

They would both recall how the “outlines were very sharp” on the exterior. Furthermore, the color was a “dark red like the cellulose mastic used as a primer before the bodywork of cars are painted”. Another detail that stood out was the much darker appearance to the craft’s underside than the top.

“Like A Flash”, It Vanished!

A strange “yellowish” light emanated from the craft, with Bouchaud even describing the light as “rippling”. What’s more, there appeared to be three other lights on the upper part of the craft which appeared to suggest a “rotary movement” of at least the upper section of the object.

The object remained in this position for around two minutes. Then, it would “roll” slightly before vanishing into the sky “like a flash”. All throughout the incident, not a single sound was heard by the two witnesses. The complete encounter took place in absolute silence.

Perhaps a strange detail worth noting is that while Bouchaud was largely unaffected by the incident (remember, he claimed to have seen a similar object several years earlier), that was not the case for Calafat. He would recall that he felt as though he was having difficulty breathing for much of the encounter. And that that “oppression” was a result of the strange object.

Even some time later when the object was long gone, he still had the appearance of someone who was extremely unwell. Even stranger was the wristwatch he was wearing. Following the incident, it began to keep time erratically and would increasingly just stop. Examination of the watch would show that it was “strongly magnetized”.

Of course, whether these things were a consequence of the sighting and Calafat’s exposure to it remains a question. If that was the case, though, we have to ask why Bouchaud was seemingly unaffected by the mysterious visitor. Might it have something to do with the previous sighting he had? It is there that we will turn our attention next.

A Short Distance Away, Five Years Earlier!

According to the information that he would give to UFO investigators at the time, Bouchaud had experienced a UFO encounter on the evening of 17th July 1966. The incident occurred in a small village a short distance from the location of the 1971 incident.

The day in question was a Sunday, although the late hour technically made it the very early hours of Monday morning. Six friends had attended a party and were now preparing to leave for home, split into two groups of three in two cars.

The first car went on ahead, but the second car seemingly lagged behind. This caused the first car to turn around and locate their friends in case there had been an accident. When they found them a short time later down the road, they would inform them of a bizarre incident they had just witnessed.

After negotiating the winding roads near the River Nartuby, one of the passengers had suddenly cried out, “Look! There’s a flying saucer”. Although the driver and the other passenger assumed he was joking, at his insistence, they would stop the car in order to investigate further. When they did, all three of the young men could see “two great lights emitting a defused glow”. And what’s more, they were seemingly “moving parallel” to their location.

The men each jumped back inside their vehicle and put it in motion. As they continued down the road, they would follow the glowing lights as it negotiated its way around the treetops. For a moment, the lights would vanish. However, when they reappeared, all three of the young men had a clear view of not only the lights but the object itself.

Like A Glowing “Camembert Cheese Box”

The driver of the vehicle pulled to the side of the road once more. He then switched off the lights and stopped the engine. Then, as quietly as they could, the witnesses would leave the car and make their way to a small wall at the roadside. From there, they would watch the bizarre object. It was now descending slightly, as well as nearing their location.

It would eventually stop and hover around 150 feet from them, and approximately 100 feet from the ground. Suddenly, a burst of light beams appeared from the underside of the craft reaching toward the ground. This display would last for several seconds before the lights suddenly went out. Then, the craft vanished with a brilliant display of speed.

All of them would note to each other following the craft’s disappearance how it had not made a single sound. In fact, all around them was completely silent.

As they contemplated what they had witnessed, the lights of the first car would come up the road. Although those in the vehicle had not witnessed anything as close as the three in the second car, they had witnessed something that appeared like a glowing “Camembert cheese box” moving overhead in complete silence.

What is perhaps also interesting is that the entire area has “fault lines” all around it. Might these faults have something to do with the sightings in the area? And might it be that this area – like many others around the planet – has been host to such mysterious activity for much longer than many of us might imagine?

We will come back to this notion shortly. First, however, we will examine two other very similar sightings in the same region.

The Bizarre Encounter Of Mr. F, September, 1945

The first of these occurred only months after the end of the Second World War. The witness, known as “Mr. F”, a 62-year-old shepherd in the Draguignan region, was watching his sheep overnight one evening in late September 1945. The night had progressed as he would have expected. Until, that is, about “an hour before dawn”, when a strange “yellow glow” appeared in the sky overhead.

The glow was distinctly circular. And what’s more, it was descending toward the ground. As it did so, the entire area lit up as if “in broad daylight”. This would cause the sheep to flee in all directions. They were, it seemed, clearly attempting to get away from the areas that were lit up.

The object remained where it was, hovering overhead. The witness was sufficiently dazed and shook-up by the encounter that he was unaware of exactly how long the object remained. However, he recalled a strange “throbbing or humming” would suddenly bring him to his senses right before he saw the craft shoot off into the sky.

For several hours after the encounter, the sheep and the dogs he kept with him were “disturbed” and anxious.

Over two decades later, and just three years before the encounter in Draguignan witnessed by the two dance band members, another encounter in the region occurred.

Christian Fabre Witnesses “Orange Glow”, March 1968

Although the exact date is uncertain, at some time in the middle of March 1968, at around 11:30 pm, 16-year-old Christian Fabre was returning home to his parent’s house. As he did so, he would turn his attention to look out over the town. It was then that he noticed a strange “orange glow” in the distance.

The more he looked at the strange glowing object, he could tell it was a distinct cigar shape. And what’s more, it was moving across through the sky, changing color to a dark red as it did so. Even more intriguing, it appeared to be changing shape, growing slightly larger or thicker.

As it came nearer, Fabre would describe the object “like a soup-plate upside down, its rim cambered in the underside”. This is a remarkably similar description to the way the dancers in 1971 described the object.

It would come to a stop over the town’s clock tower, and then rotate for several seconds. As it did so, it changed back to the orange color it had been when Fabre had first noticed it. Then, it would drop to the ground with remarkable speed, stopping suddenly and rotating once again.

The strange object would remain where it was for several more seconds before it climbed into the sky with the same alarming speed as it had dropped. Once more, the color would change from orange to a dark red. It would eventually disappear into the distance.

The detail of the color change is particularly intriguing, as it shows up in many UFO reports. What’s more, like this case, these color changes are usually, although not exclusively, linked with the speed of the object.

Fault Lines And Local Legends!

We mentioned that some researchers suggest fault lines run through the region of Draguignan. And what’s more, some UFO researchers have suggested that there is a connection between these fault lines and UFO sightings.

Some suggest that these sightings, for the majority, are some kind of manifestation of energies. These then result in a kind of bizarre aerial mirage of sorts. Others suggest that the UFOs themselves are very real. And use these lines – which many believe connect right the way around the world as part of a “world-grid” – to traverse the Earth, using the energies they produce as they do so. Others still suggest that these fault lines create portals or gateways. These then allow such cosmic vehicles entrance and exit from our world to theirs.

Perhaps one interesting aspect we should briefly examine is one highlighted by researchers of the case at the time. Those of local legends of the area that suggest, in ancient times, a “great dragon haunted” the town. Many students of the ancient astronaut theory make the connection between dragons – an aerial animal that breathes fire – to a flying object such as a spacecraft. Not least when it might land and take off in a blast of flames and noise. It is perhaps interesting to note that legends of dragons breathing fire from the air exist in almost every culture around the world.

Where did such a notion come from? Might they have once existed, in the flesh? Or might it be that such a beastly creature was the only way those in antiquity could explain and rationalize such a futuristic aircraft?

The World Energy Grid And “The Gods” Of Antiquity

Perhaps even more intriguing is another local legend from antiquity. One that tells of a “great flame (that) gushes out of the ground”. Once more, are such legends a reference to aerial technology? And if so, just why does this region of France have such a long history with apparent UFO activity?

What’s more, it would appear that UFO sightings still occur in this region of the country today. We do not have space or time to examine them here. However, it appears clearly apparent that the region is a bizarre hotspot for such activity. And the connections to fault lines, while only speculation, admittedly, is also interesting. And an aspect of such sightings that should be considered in any future reviews or reinvestigations of the case.

We have examined before, for example, the claims of a world energy grid. One that was known to ancient advanced civilizations in antiquity. And when many of the creation myths and legends from around the world speak of such times in pre-history when humans and “the gods” walked the Earth together, we have to perhaps ask if these grid lines are still be utilized by the same “gods” today. Only we in the modern world, of course, would likely recognize such visitors as extraterrestrials. Or at the very least as living, flesh-and-blood entities as opposed to a divine being.

Check out the video below. It looks at such notions as an ancient world grid and what connections it might have to UFO activity.