The article below was published in the daily newspaper Franc-Tireur, Paris, France, page 6, on October 6, 1954.
See the case file.
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Angoulême, October 5 (F.T.).
AFTER the saucer and the cigar, here comes the flying barrel. The pace of progress is quick at the interplanetary stage! Saucers and cigars are already outdated, surpassed by a much more prosaic craft, which might suggest that on at least one other world, they too appreciate the benefits of a beverage we call wine here on planet Earth... Since a trustworthy witness claims to have seen a... flying barrel, landed on the soil of Charente.
Ah! The inhabitants of the other "planet" chose well; they knew that by landing in Charente, they'd be among familiar surroundings, an area where barrels are already widely known. Of course, one could also suppose that a clever Martian took advantage of the grape harvest to "fill up" using a suitable craft.
Mr. Jean Allary is a young 22-year-old farmer who works with his parents at Ravauds, in the commune of Ronsenac (Charente).
On Sunday evening, as he was returning home around 11:15 p.m., riding his moped on departmental road 16, he suddenly saw in his headlight beam a strange craft, parked on the roadside. He was frightened and did not stop. When he looked back ten meters farther, he saw nothing. He had passed within about 1.5 meters of a sort of barrel, 1 meter in diameter and 1.8 meters tall, which, he said, was swaying as if mounted on a pivot. The barrel was brown in color, studded with yellow "nails" that shone in the light.
