Sighting in Château-Renault, August 4, 2025

At midnight, on the night from Sunday to Monday, the witness, the only person to see the phenomenon, was in their garden. To the south-east, they noticed a spherical orange object whose brightness varied at times. It moved slowly in a straight line and made no sound. After about forty seconds it passed behind some trees and could no longer be seen. The witness took no photo or video, which limits the case's consistency, rated as medium.

The witness supplied a photograph reconstructing the scene. Cross-checked with a map, it made it possible to pinpoint their position and the viewing directions precisely. The apparent path ran from the witness's right to their left, which could correspond to movement from west to east, south-west to north-east, or north-west to south-east. The nearest weather station, about 6 km away, recorded almost no wind, with a variable direction.

GEIPAN explored the hypothesis of a sky lantern: the spherical shape and orange colour are typical, the changing brightness matches a flickering flame, the slow, silent drift fits weak local micro-currents of air, the short duration matches a lantern's lifespan, and conditions were favourable for a release (summer, weekend, calm weather). The case was classified A: very probable observation of a sky lantern.