Michelin Aliens
The first case of farmer Luce Fontaine occurred in the morning of July 31, 1968, while the second incident involving 21-year driver Antoine Séverin took place on February 14, 1975. The remoteness of Réunion Island is an important factor in ruling out sociological contagion, particularly in a period long before the global culture of the internet and satellite cable. Séverin, for instance, had not even heard of Fontaine's case, which was reported in the press at the time.At 9:00 a.m. on July 31, 1968, 22 year old farmer Luce Fontaine was in a plain called La Plaine des Cafres, specifically at the 21 KM signpost, picking some grass for his rabbits. I suddenly saw a sort of oval shaped cabin in the clearing, It was about 75' from me, and as though suspended at a height of 12' to 15' from the ground. The extremities of it were dark blue, the center part lighter, more transparent rather like the windscreen of a Peugeot 404. Above and below it had what looked like two glass feet of shining metal.
Basically, Fontaine described two humanoids about 3' tall inside the transparent cabin, dressed in the so called Michelin gear and wearing a shiny metallic helmet covering their face. One of them was standing facing his back to him, but the one on the left turned and faced him.
Fontaine's statement continued:
Then both turned their backs to me, and there was a flash, as strong as the electric arc of a welding machine. Everything went white around me. A powerful heat was given off and then as it were a sort of blast of wind, and a few seconds later there was nothing there any more. Fontaine rushed to the site but couldn't find any noticeable landing traces. He first told his wife, a local teacher, and then reported the encounter to the Gendarmerie. The inquiry was conducted by Captain Maljean of St.Pierre, and Captain Legros of the Civil Protection Service. Luce Fontaine's reputation was excellent and so everyone, including the police, believed the story without any doubt. But there was more.
Capt. Legros checked for radioactivity in the landing area ten days later, and found eight radioactive spots on grass and pebbles of up to sixty thousandths of a Roentgen. This count is rather low but it was surmised that it might have been far higher right after the incident, since the checks were done ten days later and there had been heavy rains on the days before. Radioactivity was also found on Fontaine's clothes, precisely on the side which faced the UFO.
All this led in the following months to a series of bizarre rumors, according to which Fontaine had been flown in secrecy to the Curie Foundation in Paris and was being treated for radiation sickness. All these stories were false, as it often occurs in even good UFO cases. According to Figuet and Ruchon, Fontaine experienced abundant nosebleeds and had to recover at home on the immediate days after the incident, but shortly afterwards he recovered fully.
Antoine Séverin, the witness of the second CE-III on Réunion Island wasn't so lucky. His physiological effects were quite traumatic.
We do have the complete police dossier on the second CE-III with Michelin men in Réunion Island. It runs into dozens of pages of interviews with the witness, his family, neighbors, the doctors who treated him, his boss, etc. The inquiry was conducted by Lt. Col. Lobet of the National Gendarmerie and published by the French journalist J. C. Bourret, together with many other official documents, in his 1976 book, Le nouveau défi des o.v.ni. (The new challenge of UFOs). We also have an excellent summary of the whole case written by Capt. Guillaume Kervendal, the Gendarmerie's top UFO expert, for the official military journal Armées d'aujourd'hui (Armies of Today) in September 1975, just a few months after the incident itself.
While little known, this case should be a classic of that very uncomfortable but at the same time convincing category of UFO incident:
The physiological injury cases, which have been documented by John Schuessler, Bob Pratt and others. It also has some unusual aspects like a dream with a sound which preceded the encounter.
Let's quote from Capt. Kervendal's summary:
“It all started with a dream during the night of February 11 to 12. But was it a dream? Antoine S., a young 21 year old delivery chauffeur heard or believed to have heard a persistent bip bip, at times near, at times farther. That noise which broke his ears continued until the 14th, at 12 hours 5 [min.].
After buying some candy, he was walking home. Without a reason, he started running, he stopped, as if impeded by a supernatural force. His eardrums were really bothering him. He left the road and advanced into a corn field. He then felt a strange heat accompanied by a burning sensation. Paralyzed by this force that he couldn't conquer, he saw an object with aluminum color, stabilized about 4½' above the ground, emitting always the lacerating bip bip. A ladder with three steps appeared in the object at a 45° inclination. A small occupant with brilliant clothing emerged from the object. He had on his hand some sort of stick. A second character had a satchel plus a third one joined the first as they scraped the soil. They had antennas on both sides of the head. A fourth occupant stayed inside the contraption and it could be seen through the saucer's translucent dome. The third man suddenly became aware of the presence of young Antoine. A powerful flash came from the object and projected the young man to the ground. He could nevertheless see the beings returning quickly to the craft. The ladder retracted and the UFO rose with a very strong whistling noise. How long did Antoine remain on the ground? He couldn't say.
During the next few days, until Feb. 19th, the witness was in such a state of shock that he was both blinded and mute. He tried to explain what had happened to the gendarmes, gesturing wildly but unable to talk. Everyone in his family, neighbors and his employer vouched that he was a reliable and responsible individual. No solid landing traces or radioactivity were found on the site, but there was still one more troubling detail duly noted in the police reports and in Capt. Kervendal's summary of the case:
During the following days, he wanted to return to the site and take the gendarmes. But each time that he penetrated into the corn field, a strange force projected him into the ground and put him again unconscious. In the same manner that when he talked to the gendarmes on Feb. 19, when he was able to talk again, he didn't have any recollection of having been in a semi coma for 5 days.
Those are the basic facts of the second and troubling CE-III with Michelin, men on Réunion Island. The police reports go naturally into much more detail, but at no point there is a suspicion of hoax or mental aberration from the part of the witness. Who were the beings that caused Antoine Séverin such disagreeable symptoms? Although the shape of the Michelin aliens may look funny or cute, their behavior and the effects they had on both Luce Fontaine and Antoine Séverin were anything but funny. Another question is why we don't seem to have any more of this type of report nowadays.