The 1954 French flap:

A "Martian" was wandering last night

It was 11 p.m. last night when the surprising news arrived. A "Martian", or at least a being offering this appearance - if we refer to the testimonies of people who have seen them - was simply walking in the streets of Amiens.

To tell the truth, the mysterious character stood motionless and silent in the bottom of an automobile van driven by an Amiens transporter who claimed to have captured it near Allonville.

From coffee shop to coffee shop, the "Martian" was thus exhibited; which was not without causing some disturbances.

It must be said that, the half-light helping, the strange being offered a certain fantastic aspect. Dressed in a sort of spacesuit - like all known and unknown "Martians" - he had a vague blackish face, wearing a shiny helmet.

The most disturbing was the unreal light that seemed to radiate from its invisible gaze.

A person then took it into his head to notice out loud that the "Martian" had white ears like everyone else.

It was then that a cavernous voice came out of the spacesuit to say with the purest Picardy accent:

"Shut the f* up..."

A Martian captured near Amiens

In the evening of Friday, the news spread like wildfire in all the streets of the center of the city: a "Martian" had just been captured near Amiens. Finally the mystery of the flying saucers was going to be clarified.

The "Martian" was brought back to Amiens. Indeed, in a van parked in front of a café in Amiens was a strange individual, curled up in the back of the van, giving both the impression of a certain assurance but also of mistrust of the inhabitants of Amiens who came to check him out.

The man was wearing a sort of diving suit; his head seemed human, lit at times by the thin beam of a lamp of the "flashlight" kind. The man wore a bizarre hairy-looking hairstyle, a sort of headband. Besides, his face was very dark, almost black, as far as one could tell from the back of the van. The crowd gathered to see the "Martian".

But soon it was a general burst of laughter... The phenomenon in the van was none other than an Amiens resident particularly fond of jokes and who had decided to pose for an occupant of a flying saucer. He had benefited from the complicity of a commission agent, often on duty at the Amiens station. To get the appearance allotted to the Martians, he had put on a real diver's clothing discovered after much research.

Alas! Impossible to get hold of the helmet that came with the suit. It was then that the facetious one and his comrades decided to place in the garment a flashlight which gave the alleged Martian a sinister look. His face had been blackened and the man was wearing a sort of headband that had been turned upside down because of the smooth hair lining the back of the leather. The deception was discovered because the man's ears remained white. However, for some time dozens of Amiens believed they had seen a real Martian and were already preparing to tell about their encounter with the first Martian captured on earth...

When we told you that in Amiens current events do not engender fear or sadness...

FINALLY SOMETHING SERIOUS

A "Saucer" seen
by a peacekeeper

We would be ill-inspired if we had abandoned today a chronicle that made the heyday of our imaginations, that of the flying saucers.

Especially since we have new arguments to fuel it, and excellent ones.

We recently recounted the nocturnal exploits of the strange "Martian" that a resident of Amiens had "discovered" route d'Allonville and that he was driving in his van from cafe to cafe.

Only the energetic action of our friend Gilbert, a daring waiter, made it possible to discover that he was a Terran in disguise.

Our Gilbert indeed rushed on the Martian and searched him from top to bottom, which put an end to the joke.

Today, it is more serious. This is a new testimony and this testimony appears very trustworthy since it is that of a peacekeeper, Mr. Delcourt.

Yesterday around 11:40 a.m., while Mr. Delcourt was strolling rue Gauthier-de-Rummilly, he looked up to the sky where vast streaks of condensation spread that planes had left in their path moments before.

Now, abruptly, above these tracks, at a very high height, according to Mr. Delcourt, and in the direction of Ailly-sur-Somme, appeared a kind of silver and shiny lens which without the slightest noise reflected, made a large quarter circle and disappeared on the horizon.

Mr. Delcourt did not notice any smoke around the machine which moved at a very high speed.

- In any case, the peacekeeper told us yesterday, I affirm that this mysterious craft had in no way a shape of known craft.