The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Est Républicain, France, on October 7, 1954.
The daily chronicle of the "flying saucers" grows more and more. Each day, numerous newsbriefs report the passage of mysterious machines in this or that region. It remains to be learned whether the bad weather that the complacent meteorologists announce obligingly, will have an unspecified influence on the gracious evolutions of the ethereal visitors. It does not seem to be that way, so far.
To see a machine in the sky thus is nothing extraordinary any more and one could fear monotony if, fortunately, the "celestial pilots" didn't come from time to pay a short visit on the dry land and to bring with their height, their costume and their actions, more spice to the current controversies on the reality of the "saucers".
"He resembled a man"
In this field, the transitory ephemeral topicality is rightfully to be credited today to a modest bakery worker of Loctudy (the Finistère), Mr. Pierre Lucas.
Standing up early and well awaken, our man was going to get water in the court of the bakery Tuesday morning when, in the wavering gleam of a rainy dawn, he saw a machine of the shape of a saucer of 2 m. 50 to 3 m. in diameter, which stationed there stupidly. He would certainly not have cared that much about it, if he hadn't suddenly seen an individual come out of it!
"He measured 1 m. 20, resembled a man (sic) and approached me. Before I recovered from my surprise, he had tapped on my shoulder while articulating inintelligibles words."
Mr. Lucas showed a remarkable coolness. "Come inside, we'll have a chat", he
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must have told him, for the unknown followed him in the bake house. There, one saw all the same a little more clearly and without shame the "Martian" let himself be contemplated.
It is still Mr. Lucas who speaks:
"He had an oval face, entirely covered of hairs and eyes of the size of a corbel's egg!"
The young man called his owner, but the unknown undoubtedly estimated that the interview had lasted long enough. By the time that Mr. Lucas goes into the staircase to alert his owner with cares, the man and the machine had disappeared. Too bad...
First thing thus learn until better information: the strangers that pilot the saucers have a human form, but the size of children, and apparently developed hair.
Confirmation is given to us by Mr. Henri Lehérisé, young farmer of Megrit (Côtes-du-Nord), whose gift of observation did not await the number of the years.
With much off-handedness, his own apparatus, whose diameter did not exceed one meter, was posed in the court of his farm. Two dwarves occupied it, motionless, impassive. They did not condescend to come out and engage the conversation.
These two appearances obviously eclipse the "visions" of the day. Let us note however that the "saucers", threatened for a while by the barrels, balls, crescents and other cigars, launched a counter-attack of great style since there are now only talks of saucers.
The one in Saint-Brieuc let itself be contemplated during one hour; that of the surroundings of La Rochelle hovered in front of the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Guillenoteau, within one meter of the ground, in an impressive silence and the farmer noted oily traces in the grass.
In Lézignan, it was at the same time flying and giant: ten meters in diameter! Three meters only, the one that landed in the garden of Mr. Jean Labonne, in Bergerac, but on three crutches.
Lastly, the "saucers" cannot always be approached: that of Lésignan, again, wrapped Misters André Garcia and André Darzens of a bright gleam before disappearing. The one in Clermont-Ferrand literally nailed the witnesses who wanted to see it closely on the spot and released a strong nitro-benzene odor.
When the machine moved away, faintness ceased with the odor.
Odorous, coloured and inhabited, the "saucers" are also international. In Mantova, they passed in tight formations and one of them was detached from the group to make a small air carrousel show which lasted one hour... and blocked the traffic in the center of the city, the witnesses having gone down in the street for better seeing.
In Roverbella, finally, a poor fisherman entered in conversation with a "Martian", dressed in red, but they were unable to understand each other and his interlocutor disappeared when he saw the fisherman's woman appear. Mysoginic [mysogynic], perhaps...