UFOs in the daily Press:

CIGAR, SLUG SLIME, STAR or MILK COW

They're having fun in Vallauris...

"Ah! This time, I saw it, the flying cigar!..."

These were the words with which Mme. Dubiton greeted her neighbor, Mr. Julien Bellon, who had come to visit her. He feigned surprise, but inwardly felt reassured, for he too had just seen a strange phenomenon in the sky over Vallauris that Monday evening, around 6 p.m. He hadn't said a word to anyone, fearing he'd be thought to have caught the contagious madness of flying saucers and other such contraptions that are currently disturbing the minds of many people.

The neighborhood started talking, and it turned out that four people had seen the strange phenomena. Opinions were compared, but each person had a different interpretation of what they had seen. One spoke of a flying cigar, another of a white trail like that left by a slug, another of a star-shaped object — or more precisely, a stain made by some liquid — and the last simply described... a jet plane. This was, in fact, confirmed by statements from airport personnel.

The testimonies of these well-meaning individuals, who kindly received us in Vallauris, are not the only ones. Reports are coming in from all over. For example, in Gonfaron, some women in the village square claimed to have seen, in the sky at medium altitude, a flying donkey. In this region, we're quite willing to accept the possibility of such a craft!

Unconsciously, everyone seems to be playing a version of "pigeon flies", except now it's "hat flies", "pot flies", "donkey flies" — and to that we add "saucer flies", "cigar flies". With imagination having no limits, it won't be long before other objects gain the power to freely cruise through our beautiful blue skies.

Perhaps one day soon we'll have the pleasure of seeing one of these contraptions land in Place Masséna! We'd be thrilled to interview its occupants — and in gratitude, maybe they'd make a little room for us inside their craft? But smoking cigars inside will be strictly forbidden.

...when you're playing "saucer flies"!