Sighting in Roquemaure, December 25, 1993

Shortly after midnight, a witness driving a car noticed two circular shapes of a flame-red colour above the drainage canal leading to the Rhône. They were not dazzling. They appeared to lie on the same line, one behind the other in depth. At first they were motionless, then they began to move, each heading off in a different direction. The witness lost sight of the first and followed the second, which moved more slowly. They saw it for the last time above another town, took out a camcorder to film it, and lost sight of it. No sound was heard. The same day, the witness went to the nearest gendarmerie station. The gendarmes inspected the area and found no trace of the phenomenon. The videotape, which the witness handed over to the gendarmes, is not in the GEIPAN archives.

The gendarmes also found a second witness who, the evening before at about 7 p.m., had seen two white glows moving in the sky from their vehicle, about 9 km from the first witness. This second account is very brief.

GEIPAN re-examined the case, originally classified D, and reclassified it as A. The sightings were very probably the beams of two skytrackers used during festivities, whose impacts on a low layer of stratocumulus formed moving patches of light. The circular shape, the colours (some models accept coloured filters), the alternation of stillness and movement, the lack of noise, the excellent visibility, the distance between the witnesses and the fact that it was Christmas night all fit this explanation. The exact origin of the light show could not be traced, given the time that has passed.