The 1954 French flap:

A ROADMENDER IN THE HAUTE-MARNE:

"I saw in a field an unknown craft and a small being covered of hairs"

Chaumont (A.F.P.).

M. Andre Narcy, 48-year-old roadmender in Mertrud (the Haute-Marne), went Wednesday morning to his work by motorcycle when near Voillecomte, at 07:15, he noticed in a field, at the locality [illegible line] an object of orange color, while approaching he noted that he was in the presence of an apparatus unknown to him. The roadmender stopped his machine and, by foot, arrived at a hundred meters of the object. At this point in time he saw in the vicinity a small being, approximately 1.20 meters tall and dressed of a jacket covered of hair. Mr. Narcy was very afraid and lay down on the ground, then he called the individual. The latter, after having turned to him, entered in his apparatus which flew away immediately vertically to lose itself in the clouds.

A large vaporous whirl

According to Mr. Narcy, the craft was of spherical shape, had a diameter of ten meters approximately. Under the sphere was a kind of spindle and the port-hole by which the being entered the machine was just between the spindle and the body of the apparatus. At the start of the apapratus, a kind of flame came out of this spindle while a large vaporous movement occurred under the machine.

Twelve traces of round feet

Mr. Narcy went at once to his work where he told his adventure to his comrades. With two of them, Misters Riel and Henry, he returned on the spot where he noted that the dew did not exist any more on a certain surface. The grass had a slightly milky colour and was crushed on a square of approximately three meters side. Moreover, twelve parallel traces resembling prints of steps of round feet were spread at a certain distance, giving the impression that the apparatus had landed in a succession of small hops.

"INCANDESCENT BALL" IN THE SKY OF PERTUIS

Are we the only ones not to see "saucers"? This void is filled since the evening of the day before yesterday (and even before it seems).

Various phenomena were observed. Incandescent ball which pitched in the starry sky above the hill of Meyrargues to disappear at the vertical behind the railway station; object shining "on two floors" located during several hours in the same place; reddish kind of nacelle which quickly spun above the Lubéron towards the Alps at an indefinable altitude, etc..., etc...

Everybody (or almost everybody) saw "something"...

"THEY" REACH GREECE

Mitilini (Greece)

The mayor of Uryssi, close to Mytilene, claims to have seen during fifteen minutes, above the village, a pink and white flying saucer.

MYSTERIOUS LIGHT IN THE SKY OF BESSEGES

Bessèges (C.P.).

Tenants of the building located at the 6 of the Victor-Hugo street, in Bessèges, observed Wednesday evening, starting AT 10:15 P.M., a mysterious light in the sky.

This reddish gleam moved little by little and disappeared gradually at the end of ABOUT TWENTY minutes behind the mountain.

One of the witnesses, initially skeptical, had to convince himself that the light had obviously moved.

Two days before, the residents of a nearby house had also observed a phenomenon of the same kind.

A dispatch informed us recently that flying saucers had performed a new ballet in the Ardèche, at Lemps, not far from Tournon. Mr. Habrat, from that locality, saw a saucer that was also moving at great speed and seemed to dance in the sky. He called his daughter Yvette, who had to admit the evidence. A sort of luminous curtain advanced toward the farm, to within about 500 meters. A faint hum of engines could be heard. Around 11 p.m., about ten luminous craft gathered in the sky and described various figures before heading off toward the east.

This information opens the (significant) series of October saucers:

Bessèges, Pau, Nevers, Perpignan, Mulhouse, the Limousin, the Vendée, the Auvergne and the Hérault have had their visit. But none of the current “sightings” yet equals those that marked the end of September.

- ARRAS (Pas-de-Calais). - Mr. Eugène Cordier, 24 years old, found his wife watching the sky on September 22. He also looked and saw a flying cigar moving without noise, very gracefully.

- ALLEYRAT (Corrèze). - Mr. Elie Cisterne, a farmhand, while returning home at night with a tractor, saw a luminous object rushing down from the sky in his direction. Mr. Cisterne fled in terror, abandoning his tractor. When he returned, all light had disappeared.

- AUGE (Deux-Sèvres). - A flying saucer was seen by several residents, several days in a row.

- BANYULS-SUR-MER (Pyrénées-Orientales). - Three boys aged 16 to 17 saw in the sky an oblong object spewing flames from the rear and moving at very high speed.

- BAYONNE (Basses-Pyrénées). - On September 24, several people, including a peace officer, Mr. Corrions, claimed to have observed a formation of motionless objects arranged in a triangle in the sky, gradually disappearing.

- BORDEAUX. - Mr. Bolacid, from Tarence, saw on September 22 in Bordeaux a motionless disc in the sky. A few seconds later, the object disappeared.

- CHARRON (Charente-Maritime). - At five o’clock in the morning, three mussel-park workers were dazzled by a bright light in the sky, which moved and disappeared quickly.

- CHATEAUROUX (Indre). - Two gendarmes from the local brigade, Messrs. Couraud and Peninon, were on their usual patrol on September 21. Around 9 p.m., on the road to Issoudun, they saw successively three greenish luminous points that lit up and went out, moving in jerks. The gendarmes stopped a motorist and a cyclist to have them witness the phenomenon (and not to give them a ticket!). They drew up an official report for their superiors.

- CLERMONT-FERRAND (Puy-de-Dôme). - Cigars were seen in the hamlet of Gelles, around September 19. On the 21st, three people, Miss Delaire and the sisters Marie-Christine and Madeleine Gauthier, saw them again, as did at Rougires [sic] a resident of Moulin who saw a cigar and then a flying globe. On the 26th, an engineer also claimed to have seen a flying cigar.