The 1954 French flap:

Flying Saucers

Continued from Page 1 - Col. 7

...tude. Vertically, of course. Two Parisians still on vacation nearby, Mr. and Mrs. Laroche, quickly confirmed Mr. Simonetti's observation.

The Spanish border also appears to have been under special surveillance by these mysterious craft, since before the observation of a long green trail by a customs officer from Behobie, a police officer in Biarritz saw a rather chubby machine with two nozzles emitting pink and yellow lights, and a Biarritz-based painter, Dimitri Ziko, saw a rather oval craft trailing black smoke. The latter must be color-blind, despite being an artist.

A significant testimony in favor of flying household items was provided by the brother-in-law of a minister from the Principality of Monaco, Mr. Georges Leront [sic], who, over Rambouillet, tracked the movements of a "chamber pot" emitting a dazzling green light and believed he was being doused by its contents. It turned out to be just a rain shower.

It's turning into a real fireworks display: while out walking with his wife, Mr. Landrain, the waterworks official in Duclair (Seine-Inférieure), was blinded by a beam of light.

But the pilots of these craft are still hesitant to make contact with Earthlings. As Mr. Defiz, a central heating installer from Bergerac, approached a sort of greenish rocket resting on struts, he felt a strong rush of air. The craft, leaving behind traces resembling dark mushrooms visible for a few moments, was literally sucked into the atmosphere.

However, one Martian dared to descend at 7:15 a.m. through a porthole of a 10-meter-wide orange sphere, into a field called "La Vieille Tuilerie," in Mertrud (Haute-Marne), 100 meters from a road worker, Mr. André Narcy, 48 years old.

- "It was an individual about 1.20 meters tall, completely covered in hair, wearing a fur coat, with a wide salmon-colored belt around the waist, and a plush hat on his head. He stared at me, motionless. I was scared, stopped, and made a gesture to address him. The individual turned on his heels and rushed into his machine. A kind of smoke spurted from a kind of spindle, and a large vaporous swirl occurred with a buzzing sound like an electric motor."

When Mr. Narcy returned to the scene with some colleagues, the dew had vanished from a specific area, the grass had turned milky, and twelve parallel marks stretched over a certain distance, as if the craft had landed in a series of small bounces. Like a mere airplane...

J. D. [Jacques Derogy]