This article was published in the daily regional newspaper La Montagne, of Clermont-Ferrand, France, on page 5 on October 30-31, 1954.
My file on the 1954 French flap is here.
Montlucon – a big commotion reigned yesterday morning at the Huriel complementary course. The pupils, usually noisy, for the majority, had formed an attentive circle around one their comrades. Jean-Pierre Coubret, 14 years old, resident of Saint-Palais, told them his amazing encounter with a "flying saucer:" a mysterious disc, haloed of red, chased him for a few seconds, whereas he was going to the school. Two inhabitants of Mesples also observed the phenomenon, but donot dare to formulate any hypothesis.
Jean-Pierre Coubret, pupil of the fifth grade at the Huriel complementary course, returns twice per week to Saint-Palais at his parents: on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. Yesterday morning, he returned to the school by motorcycle as usual. Around 8 o'clock, after having crossed the borough of Mesples, at the top of the hill, he suddenly sees a large red disc vis-a-vis the sun. He hardly pays attention to it and continuous to ride while however observing the phenomenon at the corner of the eye. Suddenly, the disc moves, it makes an abrupt jump which brings it closer to the ground. Puzzled, the child stops. The "flying saucer" rotates quickly while moving in the sky. Remarkable characteristic: that was not like the others in a horizontal position, but it evolved with its side vertically oriented. It appeared as a large disc of silver plated color which collected the reflections of the sun. Around the machine a sometimes pink halo, sometimes turning into purple, leaves an impressive luminous trail when the disc moves.
The child looks at the disk with curiosity, still far away: but suddenly, the machine dives onto him at full speed. Frantic with fright, the young schoolboy goes onto his motor-cycle and takes an immediate U turn. The fear makes him lose the control of his machine and the engine stalls twice. He accelerates as much as he can, throwing terrorized glances behind him.
"I had the clear impression, he told us, that during a few seconds, the saucer was chasing me." Stumbling and pale, he rushes into the first house which he saw, in the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Gentil, farmers in Mesples. "Come see quickly, I am afraid, a saucer is pursuing me!" Mrs. Gentil goes out of the house: "Initially I was dazzled by the sun and I did not see anything, she told us, but when I focused well, when the eyes were accustomed to the light, I also saw a disc: it was at least three times larger than the sun and surrounded by red and purple reflections. It moved rather quickly, and it made several passes in front of the sun: one would have said that it rotated quickly, but I then again I cannot say if it was a "saucer" for I do not know how saucers look like."
And suddenly the mysterious machine disappeared without any noise. Nothing remains in the sky except for the sun continuing to bathe the fields with its already warm rays.
Mr. and Mrs. Gentil refuse to give explanations to this phenomenon. With excellent common sense, they do not want "to ride" on a case which appears quite mysterious to them. Mrs. Gentil specifies this well with the gendarmes of Huriel who came on the location. But it nevertheless remains certain that she saw this three time bigger than the sun disk.
As for the young Jean-Pierre, he is positive; and the information which his teachers give us is far from presenting him as an unbalanced child: he works well in in the courses. Besides, it is enought to look at his open and intelligent face to exclude the idea of an hallucination.
Moreover our questions intimidate him, which well proves that this is not a completely made up joke by a mischievous kid. Besides, he could not had faked such an intense fright yesterday morning. Mrs. Gentil is formal about this.
The news naturally spread like a running dog. Jean-Pierre Coubret became a star in the eyes of his comrades of the complementary course.
Many people remain skeptics regarding this apparition of a new "flying saucer" in the sky of the Montluçon area. This is so with all those who do not see these strange machines to disbelieve what the others tell.
