temporal doorway

4/14/57 - Multiple witness, Vins, Var,

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Recreation of the scene at Vins-sur-Caramy (Map point A)

"...a Mrs. Garcin and a Mrs. Rami, were walking on Departmental Road 24,
not far from the castle of Vins, which is 1km east of the village. Suddenly a
deafening noise startled them... The thing was flying slowly over the
intersection of D24 and the road that goes to Brignoles. It was only a few feet
above the ground...

"The object was shaped like a top... it was not more than 1.5m high and about
1m in diameter. It had a series of appendages or antennae which vibrated
rapidly; in resonance with these vibrations, one of the road signs at the
intersection was strongly vibrating.... and... was the source of the thundering
noise...

"300m away, a man working on the hillside also heard the noise... he was
Louis Boglio, a municipal council member in Vins... '...I saw a metallic craft
which made an enormous leap through the air.'

"The object remained near the ground only a few seconds. Then it jumped
over a distance of 200m, flying over a second road sign which immediately
started vibrating like the first one...

Two people in a neighboring village reported seeing the object in flight."

[footnote 1]
 Please note that the map above (from Vallee) shows a slightly different
conception of the object when compared to the original map shown below,
which is a closer match to the account in the article

Issue #21 of the revue Ouranos, page 50

A translation of the original Vins article in Ouranos... Thanks to Pierre Legrange for the copy
of the original article, to Perry Petrakis, Bernard Thouanel, and Jacques Poulet for their
assistance with the translation (but any errors are my own). Also, thanks to
http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn for the basic translation.

An attempt was made to contact M. Delval, who is believed to hold the rights to the article, but
he did not respond. Anyone with any objection to this republication should contact Mark
Cashman.

Investigator: Jimmy GUIEU, head of the Service of investigation of the

C.I.E. OURANOS.

Assistant: Mr. Pierre AYRAUD, sound engineer for Radio Monte-Carlo.

Eyewitnesses: Mrs. Marie GARCIN, Mrs. Julia RAMI, Mr. Jules

BOGLIO, all three Vins-sur-Caramy residents.

On Sunday April 14, at 15 hours (3 PM local time), Mrs. Garcin and Rami
were walking on the road D. 24, approximately 1 kilometer east of Vins-sur-
Caramy.
Suddenly, a strange metal machine (the color of unpolished metal) in the
shape of a cone, the point directed downwards landed on the road within a
hundred meters of their position The object somewhat resembled a large
spinning top (with a convex cap) maximum height 1.50 m; maximum
diameter approximately 1 meter . Perpendicular to the sides of the cone were
rapidly vibrating metal rods.

At the moment when the machine manuvered to its landing point, the
witnesses heard a deafening noise. This "metallic" noise was produced by a
road sign (No 1 in the sketch above) located within approximately 5 meters of
the point of landing, which was oscillating and vibrating violently.

Mrs. Rami and Garcin, frightened, together cried out immediately.

Alerted by this tumult and these cries, Mr. Jules Boglio, who was looking
after a beehive 300 meters away on a hill, ran toward them, believing an auto
accident had occurred. At this point in time he saw the machine taking off
and perceived the strange metallic vibrations again. The "cone" made a jump
above the road, performed a turn (towards the east, at 5 or 10 m maximum
height) and landed a second time - on a small path, approximately 200 meters
from its first landing point.

At the time of its turn, it flew over a second road sign (No 2 of the sketch),
which was, in its turn, subjected to violent oscillations and vibrations
producing a noise of an extremely notable "resonance". During the evolutions
of the object, the three witnesses very clearly observed the signs vibrating,
just as if they had been submitted to violent shocks repeated at a rapid rate.

Then the machine took off, pitching from side to side, and then, always
silently, flew south-east, at a moderate speed. At no time did the machine
itself make noise. The whole sighting had lasted approximately a minute.

Mrs. Rami told her husband, a Country-Guard, who soon came to the site,
accompanied by officers of the Brignoles gendarmerie; at the the point of
landing, the officers noted that the ground (on the roadside) seemed "to have
been violently swept" under the effect of a powerful wind. On the beaten dirt
track (second landing) the traces were clearer still: ground "driven out" to a
diameter of approximately 1 to 1.50 m.

On April 17, 1957; with Mr. Pierre Ayraud, sound engineer for Radio Monte-
Carlo, I went to the gendarmerie of Brignoles (VAR). Upon presentation of
my C.I.E. OURANOS investigator ID card, the adjudant obligingly showed
me a copy of his investigation report. It appeared from the start that the
witnesses were not only reporting in good faith but were also innocent of any
suspicion of trickery. Not being able to accompany me to Vins, the adjudant
gave me a word of introduction for Mr. Ventre, mayor of Vins. Arriving at
15:00 (3 PM local time) at the village (6 km to the northeast of Brignoles),
we could not contact the mayor, who was absent. I started then in search of
the witnesses and questioned the villagers. My questions met with a frosty
reception! No one knew (or wanted to say) where the witnesses were! After a
few minutes of inquiries in the streets of the village, the news of our arrival
had caused " those who knew " to depart. Others were satisfied to look on us
with suspicion... In substance, irritated by the press, the radio and television
over the past two days, the witnesses "had taken the maquis" (refuge) in the
nearby hills! Mr. Boglio, working that day underground in the bauxite mine
did not have a need to hide...

During our "hunt for the witnesses". a Citroen "Traction Avant" stopped on
the place of the village. The adjutant of gendarmerie for Brignoles, followed
by a brigadier and a gendarme, emerged... to supervise my investigation.
From the start, the brigadier declared peremptorily that the machine in
question was "radio-controlled" - certaintly from "the military base of the I'le
du Levant". Aroused. I was motivated to dispute this assertion, arguing that
no nation had silently driven aircraft. I explained moreover to the brigadier
that if the road signs had vibrated with such a din near the machine, that
could be owing to the fact that they had been altered by a propulsive
magnetic field. General scepticism. I then offered to see if there were
magnetic residue at the site.

Intrigued, skeptical, but my interlocutors agreed.

Our "4 CV" following their "Traction Avant" , we arrived at the site of the
first landing, on road D. 24. There, in the presence of the gendarmes who, at
my request, supervised my experiment attentively, I approached my compass
against the body from the "4 CV" and made note the amplitude of the
deviation of the needle: three to four maximum degrees. Then, I went to place
my compass at the exact place of the landing: negative result, no magnetic
residue on the ground.

On the other hand, 5 meters from there, the road sign (No 1 in the sketch)
made the needle of the compass jump (approximately to 5 cm), thus marking
a deviation of 15 degrees! (Let us recall that the mass of Renault had made
deviate the needle only from 3 to 4 degrees.) I invited the brigadier to carry
out the same experiment personally: the result was the same as that which I
had obtained.

One moment later, we followed on the road the "flight path" of the craft
which, one hundred meters from there, approximately, passed above another
road sign (No 2 of the sketch). This sign (indicating " Brignoles") " was also
magnetized and caused a compass needle deviation of 15 degrees. On the
other hand, a third sign, located six or eight meters further (indicating "Vins-
sur-Caramy"), did not offer any trace of magnetism to him and did not deviate
the needle of the compass! This negative test, clearly highlighting the
magnetization of the two other panels, astounded the gendarmes. They once
again carried out checks using the compass: identical conclusion.

We crossed the road and we walked on the small beaten dirt track where the
machine had landed the second time. No magnetic residue on the ground. On
the other hand, an irrigation valve, (0.40 m to the side), made of iron (rusted),
standing in the brook (dry) revealed a magnetism that deviated the needle of
the compass by 15 degrees, as shown in the example panels 1 and 2. The craft
had landed beside the valve with only 1 m or 1.50 m of maximum distance.
The additional tests controlled by the brigadier, adjudant and the gendarme
are significant, particularly the absence of magnetism on the sign which had
not been subjected to the vibrations that affected the others. This fact would
seem to indicate a magnetic residue caused by the machine; and a thorough
neutralization by this machine of the normal magnetism of the third panel.
Only a thorough study of these observations will make it possible to confirm
if this is a natural magnetic phenomenon or a residue left by the landing.
Once back in the village, thanks to the presence of the gendarmes, I was able
to meet the Country-Guard, Mr. Rami. This one, reassured concerning my
activities as investigator (he wanted at no price to deal - again - with a
journalist!), agreed to go to seek its wife and Mrs. Garcin hidden in the hills!
Thus I was able - finally! - to question these eyewitnesses. Our interview was
recorded on tape recorder with the assistance of the sound engineer M. Pierre
Ayraud, and was broadcast that evening (17 April), at 19 h 8, on Radio
Monte-Carlo.

N.B. - Contrary to what the regional press announced, the D.S.T. did not deal
with this business. April 17 in the morning (before my departure), the D.S.T.
indicated to me that only the Air police were involved. I taken then contact
with the Air police, where the Detective Rochu confirmed this, specifying
that a correspondent of Draguignan would go to the location. This
correspondent carried out the investigation on April 18, that is to say four
days after the event.

I make a point of mentioning the diligence and the objectivity with which the
gendarmes of Brignoles operated, having addressed without delay a detailed
report to the Air police, the ministry for the Interior, the commander of the
Fourth Aerial Region, and other official organizations. A second report,
giving information on my personal investigation and mentioning the
observations carried out (magnetic measurements), was, I believe, sent by the
gendarmerie of Brignoles to the Air police of Marseilles, where it must have
arrived 19 April in the morning.

Jimmy Guieu.

The following is sent by Larry Hatch, whose self-deprecating comments belie his contribution
in bringing these documents to English.

VINS-sur-CARAMY, TEN YEARS LATER (

about an investigation by Rene Hardy, Doctor of
Science )
[ Sadly mistranslated by Larry Hatch 20 MAY 2000

The elegant writing style of the following article has badly damaged and
nearly defeated my efforts to translate it. The first sentence filled an entire
paragraph, complete with words absent from the dictionary, highly elusive
subject and predicate, and so on.

I am thus forced to read between the lines, and to take liberties which I hope
have not distorted the intended statements. -LH ]

The eminent engineer was sent by GEPA to make a retrospective inquiry at

Vins-sur-Caramy, in the VAR (dept), where a most curious and unusual object
was seen on 14 April 1957 .. some sort of giant (toy) top, rounded above and
conical beneath, the conical part formed of a a bundle of little rods, which
Aime Michel gave the evocative name " Medusa Saucer ".

One finds mention of this bizarre object, which measures approx. 1.50 meters
high, by 1 meter diameter at the upper part, in the work by Michel << A
propos des Soucoupes Volants >> on pages 247 and 248. An excellent study
of the incident at Vins-s-C is in issue #21 of the revue <Ouranos> on page 50.
This summarized the investigations made by Jimmy Gieu, of a quality
confirmed by Rene Hardy.

Passing slowly, 2 or 3 meters off the ground over the crossroads of Dept.
highway 24 and the road to Vins, the object flew over a water gate of an
irrigation ditch. Then made maneuvers complicated by a landing [ not to
mention complicated by the convoluted prose of the original author ], made a
road sign vibrate clamorously - which caught the attention of the witnesses -
then (did same with) a second road sign that it flew over. A third road sign,
further away, remained quiet.

In the course of these investigations, Jimmy Gieu indicated, and made a

report to the police ( Gendarmes ), that the vibrated road-sign panels had been
magnetized in an abnormal manner: Placed 5 cm away from the signs, a
compass needle deviated some 15 degrees, while the third sign caused no
noticeable deviation.

In issue #14 of Phenomene Spatiaux [ this same revue -LH ], in the article "
Deviations and [magnetic] Traces ", page 15, we expressed some serious
doubts about the significance of the stated deviation .. one which appears
small and ordinary, suggesting a natural origin: The observed difference
between the first two road signs and the third, could be by the difference in
orientation [simply the direction they were pointing -LH].

Rene Hardy's investigation has remarkably confirmed what we had said in

our previous article ( PS #14 -LH); not only about the "magnetization", but
also about the qualitative measurements made by M. Tyrode on the body of
his car after it also was overflown by an unusual object. See in this same
issue ( PS #17 ) the article " Evillers, Bourgade Prospere".

In notes related to his inquiry, our friend Rene Hardy wrote in effect " Our
first concern was to take some magnetic measurements. Actually, we were
astonished to see the importance attached to a compass needle deviation by
investigators/observers at the time, on approach to the road signs.

" This manner of measurment cannot be taken without any reference. In fact,
these road signs aren't the same ones there at the time, but were changed. The
first sign on the left, ( #2 in the Ouranos drawing ) which shows the way
Brignoles, and also the one showing the way to Vins are new. "

" As regards the magnetic field, we found deviations on the new signs that are
completely analogous to those found in the first investigation. Those signs
pointing North-South have magnetic deviations, positive or negative
depending which end you measure .. deviations amounting to 30 degrees on a
compass held 5 cm away ( from the sign ends. )

" The old (water) gate also causes deviations of the same kind as the ones
from my car nearby. This was immediately confirmed by positive, negative
and null deviations, easily seen, in the area of the irrigation ditch, wherever I
put the compass.

" This doesn't mean that a magnetic field can not be produced by the passage
of some vessel (UFO), one capable of vibrating or bending one or more road
signs. "
As suggested by our author [ Hardy ] we plan to present his findings at one of
our future public meetings, and to show some photographs he attached .. we
conclude ( summarize, nous bornerons ) by making one or two points:

The description of the site appear once again, to be one of those wild and
remote places that unusual apparatus ( UFOs ) seem to love so much.

We add that according to details from our best sources, this "top" with its
modest dimensions [ relatively small size ] reminds us of those recently seen
flying at Ixtecec and Chiclayo ( see article in the same bulletin (?) << Two
encounters in the sky >> ) which in no way suggest the name " medusa
saucers ". It seems in any case that that the << toupie >> is a particular type
of unusual object, one which seen under certain conditions, presents itself as
a triangular object .. and could thus be falsely compared to a tetrahedrical
balloon-sonde .. not that we doubt balloon-sondes have fooled many
observers.

We warmly thank Rene Hardy for his all his documents, which we have
presented.

- - - - - [ end of article. ]

Referring back to my copy of PS #14 ( Phenomene Spatiaux issue #14 dated

Fourth Quarter, 1967 ) I find nothing new or additional. This article covers
several magnetic incidents, and merely indicates their (PS) opinion that the
magnetic deviation of the Caramy road signs was nothing out of the ordinary.
The Ouranos #21 article by Jimmy Guieu, which I do not have, appears to be
the most detailed account of the incident. All subsequent articles refer back to
it. -LH

JV: Challenge to Science: the UFO Enigma : PB

page 19-21.
Vins-sur-Caramy, Var, S.France, near Brignoles: 14 APR 1957.

2 women walking down a departmental road near an old castle, reached an

intersection and heard a deafening noise. Turning around, they saw a top-
shaped object, like an old style ice-cream cone, about 1M wide at the rounded
top part, perhaps 1.5 meters tall.

The conical lower part was covered with thin antenna-like rods protruding
downward. These rods vibrated rapidly, and a nearby metal road sign was
also rattling and vibrating in sympathy with the antennas! This was the loud
racket they first heard .. the road sign rattling violently.

One lady said the rods looked like automobile-radio antennas. Both women
screamed as the object touched the ground.

300 meters away, a farmer ( and local politician ) was tending his fields when
he heard the same noise. He thought it was a vehicle collision, and ran toward
the roadside. He got there just in time to see this 'top' object for a few
seconds, before it leaped into the air. It then flew some 200 meters, only to
come down again near another road sign on the other side of the Y-shaped
intersection.
THIS road sign started rattling noisily just like the first one did.

A third road sign, somewhat more distant, did not rattle noticeably.

Finally, the object took off across a field and was lost from view.

Two more witnesses in the nearby village of La Moutonne claimed to see the
same or similar object, for a total of 5 witnesses in all.

The first three witnesses were well known for their reliability, vouched for by
local officials including the Mayor of Vins/Caramy.

This is one of the best documented cases in European files; it was

investigated extensively by by French police, the Gendarmes ( military police
) from Toulon, scientific consultants from Paris and Lyons, and also the DST
( French equivalent to the FBI. )

[There was little press coverage, according to Jacques Vallee.]

Phenomenes Spatiaux #17

Tests seemed to indicate that the road signs were magnetized in some unusual
way. This was later disputed by others who found the same sort of magnetic
effects in unrelated metal road signs of the same type.

More from Larry...

I went browsing in hopes of finding more about the Ouranos #21 Vins article
by Jimmy Guieu.

I had no luck there, but did learn more about Vins and J.G. himself.

Jimmy Guieu is the name of an author who also wrote under the pen names of
Claude Vauziere, Jimmy G. Quint, and Dominique Verseau.

He is called a master of European science fiction, author or co-author of

nearly 140 books like Le Pioneer de l'Atome ( Jean Kerivan, one of Guieu's
favorite characters ), Au Dela l'Infini, L'Invasion de la Terre .. He also wrote
about various esoterica; secret societies, parapsychology and so on.

Born 16 March 1926, he died very recently: 01 Jan 2000.

As for Vins-sur-Caramy, it seems like a rustic and picturesque place,

complete with an old castle in good condition, which now houses a school of
fine cuisine. Vins is the subject of numerous tourist-oriented web pages.

Vins is found on Michelin Map #245 ( Provence ), fold #34, i.e. in Dept. Var
in the Southeast corner of France, Vins is at 6:09:20E - 43:25:40N; 38 km
ENE of Toulon, 7 km NE of Carces and 6 km West of Lake Carces where the
Carami river drains.

BTW: There are two spellings for Caramy, Carami being the one used on the
Michelin map for the village and the river that runs eastward through town.
There are now two Y-intersections on present day route D24, on either side of
Vins-s-C. This allows a narrow road ( given as D14 in the original sketch
from Ouranos, reproduced in PS #17 ) to bisect the village as its main street.
The larger D24 route bypasses town to the South, headed toward Brignoles if
one proceeds westward.

The N-S "weathervane" indicator on the sketch seems to be rotated a bit too
far clockwise, when compared to an independent map. This distortion has the
dubious effect of "supporting" the PS argument that the N-S sign orientation
was the cause of the magnetic needle deviations noted.

The two Y intersections allow the town route to loop back to the bypass.
These are placed East and West of town proper. Comparison of the Michelin
map to the drawing from PS #17 indicates that the Eastern Y-intersection is
the one in question.

Browsing through the various Vins web pages, one finds lots of tourism and
cuisine, and only one sour note: a controversy a few years ago about re-
opening a bauxite mine and/or plant East of town. The proposed bauxite (
aluminum ore ) operation was a potential environmental nuisance according
to one web page, now lost.

Vins sur Carami is the centrally marked pinkish "T" shape; the intersection
shown in the sketch is to the right, just above the "7"of "83170"

Every reference I have found gives us the route number ( Var ) Dept. route
#14. I finally found the modern D14 on the 1992 Michelin map. D14 now juts
out of Port Grimauld, on the Mediterranean coast West of St. Tropez, then
runs West for 6 or 7 kilometers and ends .. a good 35 km away from Vins-sur-
Caramy. There is no sensible route that would have connected the two in the
past. There's a good chance that D14 is a typo, when someone should have
typed in D24 decades ago.

As noted down in the prose on [this] page, the second town with two separate
observers is given as La Moutonne. My best lookup website finds only one
 "La Moutonne" in France. ( I would have bet on a dozen or more. ) It is
indeed in Var, but 35 KM South of Vins, very near the coast, East of Toulon.
6:04E - 43:07N Careful perusal of Map #245 ( highly detailed ) shows
nothing similar to La Moutonne anywhere closer to Vins, even under variant
spellings.

... the A8 Motorway / Freeway / Turnpike did not exist at the time. National
route N7, the red route thru Brignoles, was the main E-W route back then.
Vins was and remains a backwater.

The red inked in # 83170 is the French Postal Code for Vins. This is just like
a Zip Code, but more logically enumerated.

Hynek
CE-II
Classification

Original
Vallee Type Ia
Classification

Current
Vallee MA2
Classification

Minimum
100 feet?
Distance

Object Top-shaped, metallic

Appearance
The following was supplied by Bernard Thouanel...

An artists conception of the Vins object...

This would appear to have influenced the Vallee sketch shown above.

However, this map, supplied by Larry Hatch from a scan of the PS#17 page,
and purporting to be from the original Ouranos article, shows a "hairier"
appearance...
 Object
Touched down, leaped 200m, flew away
Behavior

Physical
Metallic signs in proximity to object vibrated
Effect

Medical
None
Effect

Comments / High quality multiple independent witness case. Note object similarity to
Conclusion Hobbs injury case, also the Salinas case, which occurred seven years earlier
to almost the day.

Footnotes
1. Vallee, Jacques and Janine, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, ISBN 0-345-27086-X
Copyright © 2004 by Mark Cashman (unless otherwise indicated), All Rights Reserved