The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Berry Républicain, Bourges, France, page 10, on October 7, 1954.
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Clermont-Ferrand, October 6. -- Two saucers were spotted yesterday in the skies over Clermont. The first, 10 kilometers from Beaumont, at 3:45 p.m. It was moving west to east.
Witnesses stated that the craft approached twice and became less and less bright. When it was only 150 meters away, they felt a "strange sensation" and were as if frozen in place.
At that moment, a smell of nitrobenzene filled the air. Soon, the craft moved away, the discomfort ceased, and the saucer vanished.
The other saucer was spotted above the Chanturgue hills, near Clermont. It moved vertically and was a bright white color.
A saucer was also seen in Billom, by a group of 30 people. The craft moved horizontally over the town. It was visible for 3 or 4 minutes before disappearing. An intense light emanated from the object.
Saint-Brieuc -- Several residents of Saint-Brieuc saw a flying saucer last night that took the shape of a cigar before disappearing. They observed it for over an hour. The same phenomenon was reported in Trégueux, where a cyclist returned home frightened by what he had seen.
La Rochelle. -- Last night, several people from Thouare-sur-Vie (Vendée) saw about ten luminous, elongated objects in the sky moving at very high speed and altitude.
— Mr. and Mrs. Guillemoteau were in front of their farmhouse when they saw a spherical saucer about a meter off the ground, estimated to be 2 to 3 meters tall and five meters in diameter. The silent object hovered for a few minutes, then rose vertically.
The next day, Mr. Guillemoteau went to the site where he had seen the object and found oily traces in the grass.
Limoges, October 6 -- A farmer from Chaleix (Dordogne), Mr. Garreau, solemnly declared that he saw a "flying soup tureen" land on his property. Mr. Garreau stated that two perfectly normal-looking men, dressed in khaki coveralls, descended from it, shook his hand, and spoke in an unknown language. Stunned, Mr. Garreau did not respond. The two men petted his dog and returned to their craft, which took off silently at a tremendous speed.
At the spot indicated by Mr. Garreau, the grass was found to be trampled.
Quimper, October 6. -- Around 4 a.m. yesterday morning, Mr. Pierre Lucas, a baker in Loctudy (Finistère), was drawing water in the bakery courtyard when he suddenly saw a saucer-shaped craft in the dark, about 2.5 to 3 meters in diameter.
The baker managed to keep his composure and returned to the bakehouse, where the stranger followed him.
In the light, Mr. Lucas could make out the figure. He had an oval face, completely covered in hair, and eyes the size of a crow's egg.
The young man called for his boss, but before the latter could come down, the nocturnal visitor had vanished, along with his saucer, which left no trace.
A beer merchant from Concarneau also reported seeing two luminous disks in the sky, shaped like round tables with a kind of tail.
One of the disks remained still while the other moved nearby. Both vanished after ten minutes, launching a flare before disappearing.
Melun, October 6. -- The Coulommiers newspaper "Le Pays Briard" published a letter from one of its readers, Mr. Farnier, a member of the Society of Civil Engineers of France, about flying saucers.
In the letter, Mr. Farnier said he saw above his property in Jouy-sur-Morin a large disk 8 to 10 meters in diameter, "spinning in place, emitting red-violet lights, with a whistling sound somewhat like that of a jet aircraft." The object was about 400 meters high and hovered above me for more than 20 minutes. I therefore, said Mr. Farnier, had ample time to observe it closely. The craft then disappeared in the direction of Coulommiers.
In his letter, Mr. Farnier added:
"Former commissioner with the Aéro-Club de France, having served in aviation, I was not the victim of a hallucination. This object was not a weather balloon, but a thick circular wing hovering in place and moving at very high speed while gradually gaining altitude."
