Tag Archives: Jean-Pierre Rospars

What Happened to the Children at Prémanon?

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A new examination of a classic close encounter with humanoid, which was part of the famous flying saucer wave in France, was recently published in a local history journa, Les Amis du Vieux Saint-Claude (No. 49, 2026, pp. 2–19).

On September 27, 1954, four children from the small village of Prémanon reportedly encountered a “flying saucer” and a strange-looking being in a field, and the story soon went from local newspapers to magazines and books throughout the word.

The event was already re-investigated in the 1980s, but the new article by Yves Bosson and Jean-Pierre Rospars (“L’affaire du « Martien » de Prémanon: construction et déconstruction d’un fait divers”) goes beyond the simple dychotomy  between a real saucer landing and a children prank: this story reveals a wealth of creative mechanisms that produced a surprising collective narrative.

The original article in French as well as an English translation are available.


A University Thesis on the History of French Ufology

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European UFO historiography is enriched with an important piece.

After the first volume (of 513 pages) published in June, the second volume (209 pages) was published in October 2017 of the book “Ovnis sur la France, des années 1940 à nos jours” (Ufo on France, from the 40s to today”), which is a revised and abridged version of a dissertation in contemporary history.

The author is Manuel Wiroth, which graduated in October 2016 at the University of Lyon, France, with a thesis titled “History of ufology in France (from the first individual research on the discs flying to the constitution of UFO study networks, from the 40s to the present”), before a commission that included among others scientist-ufologist Jean-Pierre Rospars.

For years a UFO buff Wiroth was able to base upon the impressive documentary collection of the French archive UFO group SCEAU ( Sauvegarde et Conservation des Etudes et Archives Ufologiques), directed by Gilles Durand.

The big dimensions of the dissertation forced JMG publishing house to divide it into two volumes, the first dedicated to “Testimonies and private researchers”, the second to “The scientific and military investigation”.