The article below was published in the daily newspaper Paris-Presse, Paris, France, page 5, on October 12, 1954.
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Only THREE Martians showed up over the weekend. Very reserved Martians. They abstained from the affectionate demonstrations to which they usually indulge in: caresses or hugs. No doubt they reserve these expressions of sympathy for rural populations: only country people have benefited from it so far.
A manual worker of Lavoux (Vienne), Mr. Roger Barrault, said that riding a bicycle at around 9 a.m. on Saturday, he was suddenly stopped there by a double beam of light directed by him by a "scuba diver" barely 1 m 50 tall with boots without heels very bright eyes and a strong mustache.
- The diver strolled for about a minute on the road, says Barrault, then suddenly disappeared into the nearby forest.
A mechanic from Carcassonne, Mr. Bertrand, saw, also on Saturday evening, on the road, while driving, a spherical craft of shiny metal whose upper part seemed to be made of plastic. He was able, he says, to easily distinguish two human forms in this craft; which disappeared at high speed in the east direction.
Mr. Bertrand could not specify if the two occupants of the craft were mustached like the Martian of the Vienne.
A Lyon resident, Mr. Morguin, claims that he has photographed a saucer over the Rhône.
- It was, he said, a red disc surrounded by white lights.
Several people saw a disc in Mâcon, above the Saône, not brilliant, this time, but dark.
A worker, Mr. Magnier, and truckers saw a luminous ball at Montluçon crossing the sky at high speed.
In Tourriers, 17 kilometers from Angoulême, around thirty people saw in the night from the 8th to the 9th a "kind of cigar" who remained motionless about forty meters above national road number 10 for about twenty minutes. The craft, which had two fins, then left at a speed of around 250 to 300 km per h.
Mrs. Lebert, guardian of the Pont-Chapelle castle in La Ferté-Macé (Orne), observed a craft in the middle of the afternoon mysterious that looked like a rocket and rose vertically silently, leaving behind a slight white trail.
Also, Mr. Christian Couette, son of a plumber from Tesse-la-Madeleine, was riding a bicycle towards Ranes when, near the Etang de Lande-Forêt, in the commune of Beauvain, he was overtaken by a strange luminous craft which, at high speed, grazed the top of the trees. The object, about 4 m in diameter, had the shape of a domed fireball.
