The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 16-Oct-54-Saulieu.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
According to the regional newspaper La Bourgogne Républicaine, of Dijon, on page 4 for October 20, 1954, there was a sighting on October 16, 1954, around 10 p.m., by five people returning from Pouilly-en-Auxois by car, when they arrived at the top of the Bras-de-Fer hill.
The occupants of the car suddenly saw a violently illuminated ball followed by a phosphorescent yellow luminous trail, which rose vertically very quickly and then moved southwards at very high speed.
The woman who drive stopped the car but in time to do so, "the craft had disappeared behind a hill, to the left of the road."
One of the people, "particularly trustworthy, having witnessed the passage of the luminous ball, assured us that h/she had never seen anything like so far and that it is undoubtedly a craft, saucer or cigar, the appearance of which is reported everywhere."
In 1975, the two ufologists and journalists Charles Garreau (of La Bourgogne Républicaine) and Raymond Lavier wrote that on October 16, 1954, at approximately 10 p.m., five residents of Saulieu in the Côte-d'Or who were returning by car from Pouilly-in-Auxois and arrived at the top of the "Côte du Bras de Fer" on the Road RN 6 at 3 kilometers of Saulieu, suddenly saw, on the left of the road, a violently illuminated ball followed by a phosphorescent yellow luminous trail, which rose vertically very quickly, and then moved in direction of the south at high speed.
By the time that the woman who was dribing had pulled up, the "craft" had "disappeared behind a hill."
Garreau and Lavier wrote that their sources are newspaper clipping and their personal file.
In 1958, Aimé Michel had reported the passage of a large meteor at that time over a large part of France, but he did not mention this case. It was the "skeptical" ufologists Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker who in 1979, pointing out that there is "no investigation", indicate that the description is obviously that of a meteor.
However, the explanation will be largely ignored and the case will continue to be told without explanation.
[Ref. lbr1:] NEWSPAPER "LA BOURGOGNE REPUBLICAINE":
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Saulieu would soon be noticed by his stubbornness in not seeing a saucer. Now this gap is filled.
Thursday, around 5 p.m., Mr. Boyau, a shoemaker in Saulieu and his wife, was traveling on the R.N. 6 by car. Going up the Saublot coast, they suddenly saw a ball of fire cross the sky in a westerly direction, at breakneck speed. In the short time they took to complete the climb, the machine was already very far away and appeared in a rather elongated form. Was it a saucer or a flying cigar? It is certain, in any case, that this phenomenon comes out of the natural.
Saturday, around 10 p.m., five people were returning from Pouilly-en-Auxois by car. Arrived at the top of the hill of Bras-de-Fer, the occupants of the car suddenly saw a violently illuminated ball followed by a luminous trail of phosphorescent yellow, rise vertically very quickly and then move towards the south. at very high speed. The time for the driver to stop the machine had disappeared behind a hill, to the left of the road.
One of the people, particularly worthy of faith, who witnessed the passage of the luminous ball, assured us that he had never seen anything like it until then and that it is undoubtedly a a craft, saucer or cigar, whose appearance is reported everywhere.
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
Aimé Michel wrote about the October 16, 1954, 09:30 p.m. meteor:
THE TEST OF THE METEOR. October 16, as if it was purposely, a splendid meteor crossed the north of France towards 09:30 p.m.. It was observed on a score of departments by thousands of people, from the Allier to Lorraine and from the Swiss border to Paris. Naturally many witnesses believed to have seen a Flying Saucer and said so. The newspapers printed "Flying Saucer in Orly", or "in Montididier", or "in Metz." But once again the description made by all these weak brains appeared of a remarkable honesty.
[...]
The innumerable gathered testimonys show indeed that even when the witnesses called "Flying saucer" the observed object, their description is identical on 200.000 square kilometres where the visible phenomenon was visible: an "orange ball followed by a trail", a "large luminous ball with a tail", a "flying egg followed by a trail", a "bottle's bottom with a trail of thirty times its diameter", etc. The same phenomenon is uniformly described.
[...]
[Ref. gal1:] CHARLES GARREAU AND OLIVIER LAVIER:
The two authors indicate that on saturday, October 16, 1954, at approximately 10 p.m., five inhabitants of Saulieu in the Côte-d'Or who were returning by car from Pouilly-in-Auxois and arrived in top of the "Côte du Bras de Fer" on the Road RN 6 at 3 kilometers of Saulieu, suddenly saw on the left of the road a violently illuminated ball followed by a phosphorescent yellow luminous trail, which rose vertically very quickly, and then moved in direction of the south at high speed.
By the time that the driver (female) had pulled up, the craft had disappeared behind a hill.
The two authors indicate that their sources are newspaper clipping and their personal file.
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors note this case of October 16, 1954:
"Saulieu - 21 - At about 10 p.m.: no investigation. Obvious description of a fireball."
Further in their book, they claim that "the few serious investigators" who had admitted the fact that it was a meteor which had generated this type of observations were the technicians of the scientific office of the Air Force.
[Ref. fru1:] MICHEL FIGUET AND JEAN-LOUIS RUCHON:
The two authors indicate that in the department of Côte-d'Or, on October 16, 1954 at 10:00 p.m., five inhabitants of Saulieu were returning from Pouilly-in-Auxois by car.
Arrived at the top of the hill of the "Bras de Fer," on National Road 6, at 3 km of Saulieu, they suddenly saw, on the left of the road a ball violently illuminated followed by a very luminous yellow phosphorescent trail; which rose ground and dazed away vertically very quickly.
It moved in the direction of the south at high speed. When the driver had finished pulling up, the object had disappeared behind a hill.
They indicate that their source is Garreau and Lavier in "Face aux E.T" page 47.
[Ref. lbp1:] JOURNAL "LE BIEN PUBLIC:"
In an article of October 22, 2000 headlined "The first UFO seen in Poncey-Sur-l'Ignon 46 years ago. Can it be believed?", this regional daily newspaper of Dijon summarized the events:
"Two days later, in the same small village, on Monday, October 4, at 19h30, Mrs. Fourneret, while she was going to close the shutters, saw, at 50 m, as posed at the top of a plum tree in the nearby field, a disc flattened at both ends which emitted a soft orange light. Frightened, Mrs. Fourneret took her baby and fleed at a neighbour's where they locked themselves up during an hour while waiting for their husbands. Armed with rifles and equipped with flashlights, the latter checked the location. They would discover a rectangular surface of 1,50m X 0,60m in the field, regularly weeded and the ground as rammed. On a ten meters circumference, in circle, lumps of earth were torn off then scattered. Oddly, the perennials plants such as the dandelions and the grass remained rooted. Two other inhabitants, who had not seen the machine, noted that the ground had been sucked up. During 4 years nothing grew in this place. Did the previous craft return and land, (which would explain the vacuum cleaning of the rectangular surface)? No one will never know! In this October 1954, other observations were made in the area: on 10 in Epoisse, on 11 in Lacanche, on the 14 in Meursanges, on the 16 in Saulieu."
[Ref. via3:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "VIMANA 21":
This magazine listed this case:
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54 10 16 22H LN Saulieu |
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
4165: 1954/10/16 22:00 1 4:14:00 E 47:17:00 N 3333 WEU FRN CDO 7:A
SAULIEU,21,FR:5/CAR:BRITE FBL RISES/GROUND:>>S FAST:NFD
Ref# 30 FIGEUT[sic]&RUCHON: OVNI: Le 1er Dossier Page No. 175 : FARMLANDS
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the "Côte d'or" in Saulieu on October 16, 1954 at 22:00 hours "Five inhabitants of Saulieu return by car from Pouilly-en-Auxois. Arrived in top of the coast of the "bras de fer", on the N6, at 3 km from Saulieu, they suddenly see on the left of the road, a violently illuminated ball followed by a luminous yellow phosphorescent trail which rises from the ground and slips by vertically very quickly. It moves in direction of the south at high speed. The time for the driver to stop; the machine had disappeared behind a hill."
La source est indiquée comme "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... par Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** éd. Alain Lefeuvre 1979".
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 14 October 1954 at 17:00 on the N6, near Saulieu, France, "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object was observed by one witness on a highway."
The source is indicated as Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073)".
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19541014 | 14.10.1954 | Saulieu | France | 17.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541016 | 16.10.1954 | Pouilly Auxois | France | 22.00 | NL |
[Ref. prn2:] PETER ROGERSON - "INTCAT":
October 16 1954. 2200hrs.
SAULIEU (COTE D'OR : FRANCE)
Five people from Saulieu were driving home from Pouilly-en-Auxois on RN 6 when at Cote du bras de fer, 3km from Saulieu they suddenly saw on the left hand side of the road, a vividly luminous globe with a phosphorescent trail. It took off vertically very rapidly and moved off to the south at high speed. As the driver stopped the object disappeared behind a hill.
Evaluation - Meteor
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The meteor of October 16, 1954, at 09:30 p.m.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Saulieu, Pouilly-en-Auxois, Côte-d'Or, Bras de Fer, night, multiple, ball, luminous, yellow, phsphorescent, trail, landing, vertical, fast, car, road, hill, sphere
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | January 17, 2006 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 26, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1], [uda1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 2, 2017 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | November 29, 2019 | Addition [lhh1], [prn2], Summary. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | February 27, 2021 | Addition [lbr1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [lbr1]. |
