The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Patriote de Nice et du Sud-Est, Nice, France, pages 1 and 6, on October 13, 1954.
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Cigar, barrel, balloon
flying by day and night
Soon we won't know where to look if this keeps up. Discs, saucers, cigars, barrels, pots, balloons (!)—everything is starting to fly. Pity the pilots, their job is going to get harder navigating through such a mess... if we are to believe these new "witnesses":
FROM RIOM. -- During the night, peace officers Roger Thévenin and Albert Daury of the Riom urban police, while on patrol, saw in the sky a cigar-shaped craft moving from south to north. Three red fireballs (a real fireworks show!) detached from it and lit up part of the sky for a few moments. The cigar appeared metallic, resembling duralumin.
No word on whether they managed to issue a citation for disturbing the peace.
FROM MELUN. -- Mr. Jules Lefranc, a bank employee from Paris, saw in the sky near the François-de-Tessart stadium in Meaux, for about three minutes, an object brightly lit from within which, he said, was shaped like a small football. The craft disappeared, leaving behind, according to the witness, a glowing trail the size of a stove pipe.
Residents of Trilport reportedly saw a similar stationary object.
The stadium... a ball... Come to think of it, maybe they play football on Mars too.
FROM LA ROCHELLE. -- A colonial schoolteacher currently on leave on the island of Oléron, Mr. Martin, claims to have encountered on the island two pretty Martian women about 1.70 m tall, wearing boots, gloves, and leather helmets. The two Martians grabbed Mr. Martin’s pen and drew incomprehensible symbols in his notebook while trying to communicate. Mr. Martin reportedly kept this manuscript carefully.
Lucky guy, that teacher. Instant fame. Imagine, seeing the first Martian women... and pretty ones, no less.
FROM ALBI. -- A motorist from Briatexte (Tarn), Mr. Jean-Pierre Mitto, a technical agent for a company currently exhibiting at the “Household Arts” fair in Toulouse, said he encountered passengers of a flying saucer at nightfall on National Route No. 631.
(Continued on page 6).
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"Returning from Toulouse with two relatives," he said, "I suddenly saw in my headlights two small figures crossing the road just a few meters from my car. I stopped immediately, and to our great astonishment, we then saw a large red disc, about 6 meters in diameter, take off vertically from a nearby field. The craft disappeared into the sky within a few seconds."
FROM MULHOUSE. -- Having seen a light in a pasture last night, two young women from Heimersdorf, Anny and Roselyne Pracht, aged 22 and 18, approached, thinking it was a fire lit by a shepherd. They then saw, they claim, a craft about 2 meters tall. As they got closer, the barrel-shaped object turned incandescent red, rose into the air, and disappeared on the horizon. The same phenomenon was observed by two other people.
FROM TOULOUSE. -- In the night from Saturday to Sunday, a baker from Bompas (Pyrénées-Orientales), Mr. Sebelli, saw a cigar-shaped object about 2 meters long, resting in a street of the village and surrounded by iridescent lights. Mr. Sebelli woke some neighbors, who witnessed the craft's rapid departure.
Maybe there was a tobacco shop on that street?
