The 1954 French flap:

STLL
"saucers"
IN THE SKY
OF FRANCE

NEVERS, October 8. - Several inhabitants of Corbigny (Nièvre) declared to have seen in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, in the sky, a luminous object in the shape of cigar, carrying two discs in its lower part. The machine was moving at high speed.

For his part, an office worker said he saw a large, orange-colored luminous disc with dazzling clarity behind it.

Two inhabitants of Montlevicq, in the Indre, saw a flying saucer moving slowly in the sky above the Bois de Boulaise. Thirty kilometers away, in Saint-Plantaire, other people said they saw a luminous object the size of a soccer ball.

In the Lapoustelle district, of Orthez, near the Tour-Moncade, in the Landes, a very brilliant disc was seen in the sky by about twenty people; this disc took a red color, stopped for a moment, then disappeared.

Glowing globes were seen in the sky by two traders from Saint-Bihy, near Quentin (Côtes-du-Nord), consumers of a drinking establishment went outside to observe the same phenomenon.

In the Loiret, an employee of a Cholette [sic] company stated that he had seen a luminous machine of oval shape moving at high altitude.

Other people, working in vineyards also reportedly saw an identical machine.

DISCS
AND LUMINOUS
GLOBES
ALL OVER
FRANCE

(CONTINUED)

One saw again yesterday, flying over all of France, groups of mysterious and luminous objects: orange cigars, round saucers "like soccer balls", red discs and strange globes in Crbigny [sic] (Nièvre), Montlevicq (Indre), Orthez Basse-Pyrénées), Saint-Bihy (Côtes-du-Nord), Cholette [sic] and Dordives (Loiret). In Puymoyen (Charente) one discovered at the place where a saucer had landed, twelve small heaps of ash in the middle of a circle of one meter fifty in diameter and among the ashes little sticks. The gendarmes of Angoulême think that these sticks are strips of tubular powder used in artillery.

THE "FLYING SAUCERS"

-- Nevers, 8. -- Several residents of Corbigny (Nièvre) said they saw on the night from Wednesday to Thursday, in the sky, a luminous object in the shape of a cigar, carrying at its lower part two discs. The crat was moving at high speed.

For his part, an office worker claims to have observed a large, luminous disc of orange-yellow color with a dazzling clarity at the back.

-- Châteauroux, 8. -- Two residents of Montlevicq saw a flying saucer moving slowly in the sky above the woods of Boulogne. Some 30 kilometers away, in Saint-Plantaire, other people said that they had seen a luminous object the size of a soccer ball.

-- Orthez, 8. -- In the Lapoustelle district of Orthez, near the Moncade tower, a very brilliant disc was seen in the sky by about twenty people, this disc took on a red color, stopped for a moment and then disappeared.

-- Saint Brieuc, 8. -- Glowing globes were seen in the sky by two traders from Saint-Bihy, near Quintin (Côtes-du-nord); consumers of a drinking establishment went out to observe the same phenomenon.

-- Montargis, 8. -- An employee of a Cholette company said he saw a luminous oval cigar moving around at great altitude.

Other people, working in vineyards would also have seen an identical craft.

In Dordives, two residents said they had seen in the sky a bizarre object which was moving at high altitude, rising quickly disappeared westbound.

A "Martian" in a cloak

Chaumont, 8. -- Mr. André Narcy, 48, roadmender in Mertrud (Haute-Marne), was on his way to work on Wednesday morning by motorcycle when, near Voillecomte, he noticed an unknown orange-colored vehicle in a field.

A hundred meters from the object, he saw nearby, a small being, being about 1.20 meters tall, dressed in a cloak covered with hair. Mr. Narcy was very scared and lay down on the ground. Then he called the individual who, after turning to him, rushed into his craft which immediately flew away vertically to get lost in the clouds.

According to Mr. Narcy, the craft was spherical, with a diameter of about 10 meters. Under the sphere was a kind of spindle and the porthole through which the being entered the craft, was just between the spindle and the body of the craft. At the start of the latter, a kind of flame came out of the spindle while a large vaporous eddy occurred under the apparatus.

Mr. Narcy went immediately to his work where he narrated his adventure to his comrades. With two of them, MM. Riel and Henry, he returned to the place where he noticed that the dew no longer existed on a certain surface. The grass had a slightly milky hue and was crushed on a square about three meters aside. In addition, 12 parallel tracks resembling round footprints were spread over a certain distance, suggesting that the craft had landed in a series of small jolts.

SAUCER...
... when you gotta hold on us

NEVERS. -- Several residents of Corbigny (Nièvre) stated they saw in the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the sky a luminous object in the shape of a cigar, carrying at its lower part two discs. The craft was moving at high speed.

For his part, an office worker claimed to have observed a large, luminous disc of orange-yellow color with a dazzling clarity at the back.

CHATEAUROUX. -- Two residents of Montlevicq saw a flying saucer moving slowly in the sky above the Bois de Boulaise woods. Thirty kilometers away, in Saint-Plantaire, other people said they saw a luminous object the size of a soccer ball.

ORTHEZ. -- In the Lapoustelle district of Orthez, near the Moncade tower, a very bright disc was seen in the sky by approximately twenty people. This disc took a red color, stopped for a moment, then disappeared.

SAINT-BRIEUC. -- Glowing globes were seen in the sky by two traders from Saint-Bihy, near Quintin (Côtes-du-nord). Consumers of a drinking establishment went out to observe the same phenomenon.

MONTARGIS. -- An employee of a Cholette company claimed to have seen an oval shaped luminous craft moving at high altitude.

Other people working in the vineyards reportedly also saw an identical craft.

In Dordives, two residents stated that they had seen in the sky a bizarre object that was moving at high altitude. Rising rapidly, it disappeared towards the west.

The Chronicle of the Saucers

NEVERS. -- Several inhabitants of Corbigny (the Nièvre) said they saw a luminous cigar-shaped object in the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the sky carrying at its lower part two discs. The craft was moving at high speed.

Also, an office worker stated that he had observed a large, orange-yellow luminous disc, with a dazzling clarity at the back.

CHATEAUROUX. -- Two inhabitants of Montlevicq saw a flying saucer moving slowly in the sky over the Bois de Boulaise.

Thirty kilometers away, in Saint Plantaire, other people said they saw in the sky a luminous craft the size of a soccer balloon.

ORTHEZ. -- At the Lapoustelle-d'Ortez district, near the Moncade tower, a very brilliant disc was seen in the sky by about twenty people: this disc took a red color, stopped for a moment, then disappeared.

SAINT-BRIEUC -- Two luminous globes were seen in the sky by by two traders from Saint-Bihy, near Quintin (Côte-du-Nord). Consumers of a drinking establishment went out to observe the same phenomenon.

MONTARGIS. -- An employee of a Chalette company claimed to have sighted an oval luminous craft traveling at high altitude. Other people working in the vineyards have reportedly also seen an identical craft.

In Dordives, two residents reported seeing a craft in the sky that was "bizarre" and was moving at high altitude; rising rapidly, it disappeared towards the west.

THE "FLYING BELL" OF PONCEY

Three hypotheses:
saucer, hoax or
natural phenomenon

"We will have to clear up this matter..." said the gendarmerie commander

(From our special envoy Charles DAUZATS.)

DIJON, October 9.

"SEND the minutes relating to the mysterious traces of the Poncey-sur-l'Ignon phenomenon to Dijon, as a matter of urgency": such is the order sent yesterday by Major Viala to the investigators responsible for clarifying the enigma of the Côte-d'Or "flying bell".

- We need to clear this up, says the commander. Brigade reports will be forwarded to various authorities, the solution may depend on them. If one considers the facts reasonably, if one refers to the testimony of good people who, unfortunately, sin by their imprecision, or who, on the contrary, have formed an opinion after the fact, and mistook bladders from lanterns, we must, indeed, consider three possibilities:

"The first is this: one actually saw objects in the sky, but they could be helicopters. In our region, movements of such craft are not uncommon.

"Second possibility: the flying bell of Poncey, and its traces, are the work of pranksters. This hypothesis, I admit, hardly satisfies me.

"Finally, we must consider the hypothesis of an appearance of an extraterrestrial object."

At the Dijon Weathe stationr, the technicians saw nothing but very normal in the sky during the nights of Saturday and Monday.

Negative scientific reviews

At the Faculty of Science in Dijon, one submitted to Jaeger [sic, Geiger] a clod of grass taken from the meadow of Poncey-sur-l'Ignon where the bell-saucer was posed. No trace of radioactivity. No trace of metals either in another clod entrusted to the Institute of Geophysics.

The last word could remain with the airmen. General de Chassey, who commands the base in Dijon, received us.

"I have never seen a flying saucer, he tells us. But I know, from having tried the experiment, that it is possible to make very trained men believe in the presence of mysterious celestial things. One day, returning from Paris by plane, I saw under my aircraft a very curious optical phenomenon, due to the refraction of a pond on a cloud of mist. This mirage looked so much like a saucer turning in the atmosphere at 400 meters high that I alerted my mechanic who had not seen anything yet: "Look, slightly below us..." He remained dumbfounded for a moment, but, the plane passing vertically of it, he realized that he had been the toy of an illusion...

"Let's go back to the facts. Are these extraterrestrial craft? If they are piloted by beings from another world, these individuals are very little interested in knowing what is happening with us: each time we arrive, they leave. Their journey, then, is no longer understandable!

"New craft?... I affirm that if engineers had succeeded in developing them, that would be known in certain spheres at least.

Saucer psychosis

"Regarding the strange objects reported these days, I don't want to make any final judgment.

"I believe that in Côte-d'Or today there is a saucer psychosis, as in 39-40 there was, in France, a rocket psychosis.

"Certainly, there are some rather disturbing facts, in particular the case of three aviators from the 5^th brigade, in Orange, who all saw a saucer, chased it until it disappeared behind the mountain.

*

Near Mulhouse, an SNCF employee, Mr. René Ott, who went to work early in the morning, said he had seen in a field a hemispherical dome lit inside. It was three meters from the road and one meter from the ground, Mr. Ott, going away - he was only half reassured - had time to see a door open in the "bell" that followed him for eight hundred meters.

The gendarmes did not find any traces in the field. They discovered, on the other hand, near Reims where a mechanic, Mr. Joseph Roi, saw a "cigar" or a flying gun shell. He was going home on the night of Wednesday to Thursday when he saw a bright gleam before him; he thought they were car headlights. Suddenly, the light went out and at the spot where he had seen it Mr. Roi distinguished at the edge of the road an odd object more than 3 meters long having the shape of a large gun shell pierced by portholes; at the front stood a vague silhouette which he could not define. The traces noted by the gendarmes will be examined.

Luminous globes were seen yesterday in Bournel (Lot-et-Garonne), in Montpezat-d'Agenais, in Cherbourg, in Orthez. A baker from Marcillac-de-Blaye saw a reversed funnel that flew at 70 meters.