Source: GEIPAN (French government UFO program)

The following is a brief summary of the case. The case is from the files of the official French government UFO research program GEIPAN (Group for the Study and Information of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomenon), which is a part of CNES, the French government space agency. The full report and file on this case [in French language] is on the GEIPAN website at http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/geipan. The case has been classified as a 'Class D' case, which are the unexplained cases in the GEIPAN files.

The summary has been translated using automatic computer translation, so it is not a perfect translation.

On September 12, 1996 around 8 p.m., a mother and her daughter in their car observe an object made up of an ovoid [oval-shaped] skirt [?] and a surmounted cylinder on a dome with three lights (port-holes?) sharp red. On the cylinder, a fluorescent green light turned like a gyrophare [?]. The object, silent, was suspended 4 meters off the ground and approximately ten meters from the road. Its size is estimated as two cars [size] approximately. The object disappeared at the end of a few minutes. The phenomenon observed was not explained.

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The original summary in French:

Le 12 septembre 1996 vers 20 heures, une mère et sa fille en voiture observent un objet composé d'une jupe ovoïde et d'un cylindre surmonté d'un dôme avec trois lumières (hublots ?) rouge vif. Sur le cylindre une lumière vert fluorescente tournait comme un gyrophare. L'objet, silencieux, était en sustentation à 4 mètres du sol environ à une dizaine de mètres de la route. Sa taille est évaluée à deux voitures environ. L'objet a disparu au bout de quelques minutes. Le phénomène observé n'a pas été expliqué.