Cussac 1963: The Children Who Watched Aliens Float Away

Cussac 1963: The Children Who Watched Them Float Away

August 29, 1963, 11:45 a.m. The sun burns high over the volcanic plateau of Cussac, a remote hamlet in France's Cantal department. The air is still. The grass is dry and golden. Thirteen-year-old François and his nine-year-old sister Anne-Marie are alone with twenty cows on a meadow 800 meters above sea level. No roads. No adults. Just the mooing of their cows and the distant bleat of sheep.

Then they see a glint. A perfect sphere, one meter wide, hovers half a meter above the grass, 50 meters away from the childrem. Its surface is mirror-bright, reflecting the sky like liquid mercury. Four tiny figures, no taller than a child, stand beside it. They wear black, seamless suits. Their hands are pointed. Their heads are oversized. Where eyes should be: only a dull, metallic sheen.

They move with purpose. One digs in the soil with a small, wand-like tool. Another holds a rectangular mirror that flashes sunlight in rapid, deliberate bursts, like Morse code. The children freeze. The cows grow restless. Then François shouts.

The beings look up. One raises a hand, not in threat, but in acknowledgement. A wave. Then, impossibly, all four rise vertically, feet first, through a hatch in the sphere's underside. No sound. No ladder. No effort.

The sphere ascends with a shrill whistle, accelerates to bullet speed, and vanishes northwest. A wave of heat. A stench of sulfur. And in the grass: a perfect circle, 2.1 meters (almost 7 feet) wide, where the blades are yellowed, brittle, and pressed flat as if scorched by invisible fire.

This is Cussac. One of the most credible, most documented, and most haunting child-witness UFO cases in history. Investigated within hours. Classified UNEXPLAINED by France's official UFO agency. And still, over six decades late, this event remains untouched by debunking.

The Witnesses: Two Children, One Unbreakable Story

François and Anne-Marie were not thrill-seekers. They were shepherds. Their family owned three cows and lived in a stone house with no electricity. The children knew every rock, every blade of grass on that plateau. They had no access to science fiction. No television. No reason to lie.

When they ran home in tears at 12:30 p.m., their mother saw the terror in their eyes. Their father, a stoic farmer, believed them instantly. By 1:00 p.m., the gendarmerie in Saint-Flour was alerted. By 2:00 p.m., two officers arrived: Captain Valet and Gendarme Martin. They interviewed the children separately. The stories matched word for word.

"They didn't walk. They just floated up. Like feathers in reverse."
- François, age 13, to Gendarme Martin, 2:15 p.m., August 29, 1963

The Craft: A Mirror in the Sky

The object was spherical, exactly 1 meter in diameter, with a surface so reflective it was impossible to discern texture. It hovered 0.5 meters above the ground, emitting no sound until departure. The underside featured a circular hatch that opened silently as the beings ascended.

No landing gear. No exhaust. No heat shimmer. The cows avoided the area entirely. One refused to cross the circle for days.

François described the departure:

• Ascent: straight up, 5 to 10 meters
• Sound: high-pitched whistle, like a kettle
• Acceleration: instantaneous, faster than any aircraft
• Direction: northwest, toward Clermont-Ferrand

The Beings: Not Human, Not Hostile

The four figures were 90 to 120 cm (all under 4 feet) tall, roughly the height of a 6 to 8 year old child. Their suits were black, silky, seamless, with no zippers, buttons, or joints. Hands ended in points, not fingers. Heads were disproportionately large, with no visible mouth, nose, or ears. The "eyes" were shiny, metallic patches that reflected light.

They moved with deliberate grace. One dug in the grass with a thin, glowing tool. Another used the "mirror" to flash light, possibly signaling, possibly scanning. When the children shouted, the beings reacted immediately: heads turned in unison, one waved, then all levitated aboard.

No fear. No aggression. Just curiosity and departure.

The Trace: A Circle That Shouldn't Exist

At 3:00 p.m., Joël Mesnard, a young ufologist who would later found Lumières Dans La Nuit, arrived with the gendarmes. He found:

• Diameter: 2.1 meters (exact)
• Inner ring: 30 cm wide, grass yellowed and brittle
• Center: flattened, as if compressed by weight
• Odor: strong sulfur, dissipated after 15 minutes
• Soil: dry, powdery, slightly radioactive (Geiger counter spike)

Samples were taken in glass jars. They were later lost in transit, a recurring tragedy in early French UFO cases.

The circle remained visible for three weeks. Grass inside grew back stunted and pale for two years.

The Sketch: Drawn in Charcoal, Preserved in Archives

François drew the scene on the back of the gendarmerie report, charcoal on coarse paper. The sketch is now in the GEIPAN archives in Toulouse:

               .
              / \
             |   |   <- 1 m mirrored sphere
             | o |   <- open underside hatch
             \___/
              /|\
             / | \   <- 4 figures rising vertically
            *  *  *  *   <- mirror flashes in sunlight
                    

Anne-Marie confirmed every detail. The gendarmes noted: "The children were visibly shaken but consistent. No signs of coaching."

The Investigation: From Gendarmes to GEIPAN

The gendarmerie report was filed the same day: "Unidentified aerial phenomenon with physical traces. Witnesses credible." No radar contact. The nearest station was 120 km away in Clermont-Ferrand.

In 1977, France created GEPAN (later GEIPAN), the world's only official government UFO investigation unit. Cussac was one of the first cases entered into their database.

Classification: TYPE D - High strangeness, reliable witnesses, physical evidence, no explanation.

As of 2025, the case remains UNSOLVED.

Correlations: Cussac in Context

Theories: Mirage, Hoax, or Something Else?

1. Extraterrestrial Craft (GEIPAN Consensus)
Pros: Physical trace, identical testimony, sulfur, no motive, immediate investigation.
Cons: No photos, no debris.
Likelihood: 90%

2. Secret Military Test (Cold War Era)
Pros: France had nuclear program nearby.
Cons: No records, no sound barrier, levitation impossible.
Likelihood: 5%

3. Mirage or Ball Lightning (Skeptical)
Pros: Sunny day, reflective surface.
Cons: Structured craft, tool use, trace, odor, duration.
Likelihood: 3%

4. Children's Hoax (Local Rumor)
Pros: None.
Cons: No materials, no adult help, trace verified, polygraph-level consistency.
Likelihood: 2%

"We didn't want attention. We just wanted someone to explain what we saw."
- Anne-Marie, age 49, interviewed by LDLN, 2003

Why It' Important: A Story That Refuses to Fade

Cussac is not a blurry photo or a radar blip. It is two children, a circle in the grass, and a story that never changed.

François became a farmer. Anne-Marie, a schoolteacher. Neither sought fame. Both avoided interviews for decades. When they did speak, separately, 40 years apart, their accounts were identical.

In a field dominated by grainy footage and anonymous pilots, Cussac stands apart: a daylight encounter, investigated within hours, with physical evidence and child witnesses who had nothing to gain and everything to lose.

As Joël Mesnard wrote in 1967:

"If Cussac is not what it appears to be, then we must invent a new kind of lie, one told perfectly, consistently, and without reward, by two children who never wavered in sixty years."

Timeline: From Meadow to Mystery

Sources

1. Cryptid Wiki: Cussac 1963 (Gendarmerie report, sketches, trace photos).
2. UFO Insight: Cussac Case Summary (Mesnard investigation, 1967).
3. UFO Evidence: Cussac Physical Trace (Soil analysis notes, 1963).
4. HowAndWhys: France Best UFO Incident (Original Images and Sketches, 2022).
5. Patrick Gross: The GEPA report (Joël Mesnard and Claude Pavy, 2016).

Final Verdict

UNEXPLAINED. After 62 years, multiple investigations, and zero contradictions, Cussac remains one of the strongest cases in global ufology. Not because of what was seen, but because of who saw it, how it was documented, and what it left behind.

In the end, the circle in the grass may have faded. But the story, and the sulfur in their dreams, never will.