Sighting in Bordeaux, July 7, 2007

The account was collected in 2016, long after an observation made in July 2007. At about 3 a.m., a driver and a friend were travelling on the N118 towards Nantes when they saw a spherical luminous phenomenon, glowing green with a pale greenish halo. It moved through the air erratically, changing direction often, and it was fairly close to them. After about twenty seconds it disappeared.

The witness first thought of ball lightning but rejected the idea because the weather was not stormy. They also pointed out that the CEA site at Saclay was nearby. Only one testimony was obtained.

The expert consulted considered that the phenomenon's behaviour, duration and colour were consistent with ball lightning. However, the account came late, 11 years after the event, so weather data, including whether there had been stormy conditions, could not be obtained to support that hypothesis. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as C, insufficient data, close to a B classification (ball lightning).