The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Union, of Reims, France, page 5, on October 7, 1954.
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[Photo caption:] With these pocket hot-air balloons that he manufactured in series using paper and tow, a middle-aged prankster, Mr. Jean d'Oliveira, a retired miner (in the inset), was having tremendous fun. These flying saucers greatly intrigued the people of the North, and Mr. d'Oliveira was hugely amused reading the accounts given by those who had seen his devices drifting with the winds, surrounded by yellow and orange reflections.
PARIS . -- The file on the "flying saucers" is growing thicker. The mystery as well. Luminous craft - among them cigars, cigarillos, discs, spheres, etc. - appear suddenly before the eyes (increasingly less astonished) of witnesses who are for the most part considered reliable. But it appears that the Martians have a particular fondness for our country.
From these objects there sometimes emerge beings, most often frightening, who do not hesitate from time to time to converse with a few Earthlings before returning to their celestial homelands.
Thus, on Monday morning around 4 a.m., Mr. Pierre Lucas, a bakery worker in Loctudy (Finistère), who was drawing water in the bakery courtyard, suddenly saw in the night a craft shaped like a saucer measuring 2.5 to 3 meters in diameter. He saw an individual about 1.20 meters tall come out of it, approach him, and tap him on the shoulder while uttering unintelligible words.
The worker managed to keep his composure and went back into the bakehouse, where the stranger followed him. In the light, Mr. Lucas was able to examine the visitor: he had an oval face, completely covered with hair, and eyes the size of a crow"s egg. The young man called his employer, but before the latter had time to come down, the stranger had disappeared along with his saucer, of which no trace was found.
This was also the adventure that happened yesterday morning to a good road worker from the Wassy region, who found himself in the presence of a craft beside which stood a small hairy man. The details of this report are given elsewhere.
While saucers are multiplying, scientists are examining these mysterious phenomena, but we are still far from being able to provide a reasonable explanation.
It is certain that several witnesses have been mistaken, but statements by qualified persons are often troubling.
The newspaper of Coulommiers publishes a letter sent by one of its readers, Mr. E. Farnier, a member of the Society of Civil Engineers of France, concerning a flying saucer.
In this letter, Mr. Farnier states that he saw above his property at Jouy-sur-Morin a large disc 8 to 10 meters in diameter, "turning in place while emitting reddish-violet glows, with a whistling sound somewhat like the arrival of a jet aircraft. The craft was about 400 meters high and hovered above me for more than 20 minutes. I therefore had," says Mr. Farnier, "ample time to examine it carefully. The craft then disappeared in the direction of Coulommiers."
In his letter Mr. Farnier specifies: "Former commissioner with the Aéro-Club de France and having served in aviation, I was not the victim of a hallucination, and this craft was not a weather balloon but a thick circular wing hovering in place and moving at very high speed while gradually gaining altitude."
Our planet - and France in particular - has undergone a veritable assault during the past twenty-four hours. Judge for yourself:
A PROPELLERED CIGAR was seen over Forges, 20 kilometers from Tulle, moving at low altitude without noise or smoke.
SEVERAL PARISIANS declared they saw yesterday around 4:30 p.m. saucers maneuvering in the sky over the capital. But air traffic was heavy, and mistakes are possible.
OIL TRACES were discovered at Nessier, in the Poitevin marshes, at the exact place where the day before Mr. and Mrs. Guillemoteau had seen a red saucer.
A CIGAR was seen near Berck-Plage by Mr. Georges Galand, a butcher from Rue, who was driving his car. The mysterious craft flew at low altitude and followed the national road for eight kilometers.
A TOP-SHAPED OBJECT emitting red and green rays was seen in Marseille by four people.
TWO DISCS, sometimes transforming into a cigar, were seen near Arles by several motorists.
TWO "FLYING TAILS" were seen by a beer merchant from Concarneau. They disappeared after ten minutes after launching a rocket.
A FOUL-SMELLING SAUCER (it smelled of nitrobenzene) was seen by Messrs. Bron and Marteauron of Clermont-Ferrand, who were "paralyzed" for a few seconds. Many similar craft were seen in the region, notably at Le Puy.
A THREE-LEGGED SAUCER reportedly landed in the garden of Mr. Montagne, an S.N.C.F. employee living at 13 Rue Ernest-Lavisse in Limoges.
FINALLY, DISCS, CIGARS, SPHERES, ETC., were seen at Quend (Somme), Grandvillars (Territoire de Belfort), Magnac-Laval (Haute-Vienne), Saint-Jean-d"Angély (Charente-Maritime), Perros-Guirec (Côtes-du-Nord), Nazin (Corrèze), Lézignan (Aude), Bergerac (Dordogne), Nevers, St-Étienne, Aurec-sur-Loire (Loire), Montbrison, and finally at La Rochelle and several neighboring localities.
