The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 17-Oct-54-Cournon.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In his 1997 book on the 1954 French wave, the author Jean Sider indicated that the newspaper L'Echo du Pays de Redon, of Redon, for October 23, 1954, on page 2, reported that on October 17, 1954, around 5:00 p.m., in Cournon near Redon, in Ille-et-Vilaine, André Hervé, farmer, was riding a bicycle when he made a weird observation:
He first saw in the sky about 300 or 400 meters away a very shiny ball, as big as a velocipede wheel, which seemed to be moving towards him but which then turned to the left to get lost in the trees lining the road.
At the same time, Roger Boudart, farmer, and Joseph Proudy, butcher in the village, were busy hunting 200 meters away, when they saw the ball that was standing about a kilometer from them, above the fir wood.
The ball went down gently, according to Mr. Proudy, and was seen touching the ground in front of the wood. Then it moved slightly to the left for about fifteen meters and was then half hidden by the trees.
Joséphine Epaillard and her two little girls later saw two kinds of headlights which lit up at the two ends of the craft; which "disappeared without anyone seeing it leaving."
The next day, people came to the place where the phenomenon was supposed to have occurred, but they found nothing.
[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:
French ufologist and author Jean Sider learned in an article from the newspaper L'Echo du Pays de Redon, Redon, for October 23, 1954, page 2, that on October 17, 1954, at approximately 05:00 p.m., in Cournon, near Redon, in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, André Hervé, a farmer, rode his bicycle when he made a curious observation.
He first saw at approximately 300 - 400 meters of distance in the sky, a very shiny and large ball like a bicycle wheel, which appeared to move towards him but which then turned to the left and was lost of sight in the trees which border the road.
At the same time, Roger Boudart, farmer, and Joseph Proudy, butcher in the borough, were hunting within 200 meters from there, when they saw the ball which was stood at approximately a kilometer from them, above the wood of fir trees.
The ball went down gently, according to Mr. Proudy, and was seen touching ground in front ofthe wood. Then it moved slightly on the left on about fifteen meters and then was with half hidden by the trees.
Joséphine Epaillard and her two young girls thereafter saw two kinds of headlights which ignited at the two ends of the machine, which disappeared without whoever seeing it leaving.
The next day, people came to the supposed place of the appearance but they found nothing.
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
4176: 1954/10/17 17:00 3 2:06:40 W 47:45:00 N 3333 WEU FRN MRB 7:9
COURNON,FR:6 OBS:80cm FBL LANDS:FLOATS > WOODS:BRITE BEAMS:VANISHES!:/LDLN#321
Ref#217 Jean SIDER: Le DOSSIER 1954 (2 vol.) Page No. 112 : FARMLANDS
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 17 October 1954, at 17:00, in Cournon, France, an 8-meter fireball lands, floats through the woods. "Bright beams. Vanishes. An object was sighted that had an appearance and performance beyond the capability of known earthly aircraft. One fireball, about 2 feet across, was observed by six witnesses on a farm for over three minutes."
The source is indicated as Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002.
I did not find "Cournon" in the Ille-et-Vilaine department; as this place is supposed to be near Redon which is indeed in Ille-et-Villaine, I suppose that it is a locality that disappeared since or whose name has been lost since.
Of course if the indicated witnesses had made this observation independently, there is little chance that it was the moon; but it is not certain that they were independent observers. I checked, anyway, the situation of the sky and the moon, which, to explain this case, should be a full moon, and in the process of setting at this time.
A first problem is that it the sky is still quite bright at this hour, the "ball" which would be the Moon could hardly have been described as "very bright". Second problem: the Moon was set since 1:45 p.m.
So I am left with a phenomenon not yet identified, but quite poorly documented, and obviously never investigated.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Cournon, Ille-et-Vilaine, day, multiple, Andre Hervé, Roger Boudart, Joseph Proudy, Joséphine Epaillard, ball, shining, headlights
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 17, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 4, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [uda1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | October 17, 2014 | A search on the web and my documentation brought no other information. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | December 17, 2019 | Additions [lhh1], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet." |
