Several articles from the French mainstream press in July of 2019 present new “cover stories” for beautiful crop pictures which appeared near Torigny-les-Villes (Manche) on June 14, 2019, or Saulx-Marchais (Yvelines) on June 28, 2019, many weeks or even a month after the fact.  

First let us examine a new “cover story” for the Torigny-les-Villes crop picture which was written on July 10, 2019, approximately one month after this crop picture was found on June 14, 2019. 

“The mystery of a crop circle which appeared on June 20, 2019 in a wheat field near Torigni-sur-Vire (Manche) has just been elucidated. It is the work of a farmer Thomas Fremond, owner of the field, who was helped by his brother, his girlfriend and an apprentice (see manche-le-secret-du-crop-circle-leve).

This reporter has not even gotten the date-of-discovery correct! While a news article about it came out on June 20 (see insolite-mysterieuses-formes-geometriques-dans-champ-la-manche), the first photos were taken on June 14 (see Gieville 2019  ).

Drawn but not seen for 8 days, next to some busy roads? Only “2 hours or work”?

Next he tells us that the Manche crop picture was made in only 2 hours between midnight and 2 AM, on the night of June 5-6, and that its four supposed makers were equipped with a “string, board, and le tour est joué”. His last phrase means “voilà” or “that’s all there is to it”. Seriously?

How did this beautiful crop picture in Manche, located between two busy roads, escape everyone’s attention for eight days? Also we know from studies by Paul Jacobs that the construction of a crop picture of this size and complexity, even by a skilled team of men in daylight, would require 8 to 12 hours (please see various articles on www.coregroupinitiative.com).

A photo of the supposed “planking session” is then shown. It reveals two narrow, forked paths which diverge left and right. These do not match any observed features of the Torigny-les-Villes crop picture:

Finally, this French farmer is supposedly damaging his own crops, whereas almost all farmers (everywhere else) do all they can to prevent new crop circles from being drawn in their fields! Who could believe such an improbable and unevidenced story?

Another series of “cover stories” are likewise being offered for Saulx-Marchais of June 28, 2019

There have also been series of new articles from the French mainstream press, concerning a complex and elegant crop picture which was found near Saulx-Marchais (in Yvelines) on the morning of June 28, 2019. They suggest that a large team of “schoolchildren” made this precisely-drawn, 65-meter-long crop picture, on the Friday night of June 28 in less than 3 hours between 7 to 10 PM.

Many schoolchildren were supposedly involved, although none were seen by people from a nearby road. Those children supposedly did not even tell their parents where they were going! (see yvelines-professeurs-sciences-derriere-loperation-crop-circle-saulx-marchais or yvelines-collegiens-auteurs-crop-circle-sont-fiers-deux).

Such “cover stories” for the crop picture at Saulx-Marchais seem equally implausible in their technical details. For example, the reporter shows us only “long planks of wood”, which could not possibly have made many narrow, 10-cm-wide paths of fallen wheat as were drawn there. Nor could two-meter-long boards have made a delicate “parted lay” of fallen wheat planks, directly next to where they are standing (marked with a red arrow below):

If those French news reporters wish to try and convince anyone that their factually-unsupported stories might be correct, why not ask the people who supposedly “made” those two crop pictures at Torigny-les-Villes or Saulx-Marchais to make another one in broad daylight, with everyone watching?

We need facts, not words. Truth, not lies. Let’s see them do it. I don’t think they can.

Red Collie (Dr. Horace R. Drew, Caltech Ph.D, 1981. MRC LMB Cambridge 1982-86, CSIRO Australia 1987-2010)