The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 28-Dec-54-Paris.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In 1954 newspapers and magazines, it was reported that on December 29, 1953, at 3:00 a.m. or 3:45 a.m., Paul Paulin, engineer, had taken a snapshot of a flying disc that allegedly flew near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Because the "disk" appears twice as a luminous spot, connected by a kind of trail, that one of the spots is above the Effeil tower in the photo, it was said that it had been motionless then had made a jump which had brought it to hover above the Effeil tower.
In his 1954 book "Flying Saucers Uncensored", British author Harold Wilkins mistakenly dated the case for December 28, 1954.
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It was taken by one Paul Paulin, generally incorrectly dated from 1954 by other sources, and considered a "fake" in the "FOTOCAT" catalogue by Spanish Vicente-Juan Ballester-Olmos.
I show in this file that the saucer was likely the beacon of the Eiffel tower lighting the cloud layer.
[Ref. nfr1:] "NORD-FRANCE" MAGAZINE:
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Other flying saucers have been reported in the skies of our France. We even managed to photograph them. On December 29, 1953, at 3:00 a.m., Mr. Paul Paulin, engineer, took an impressive snapshot of a flying disc which had come to rest for a few moments above the Eiffel Tower.
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Photograph of a disc taken in Paris by Paul Paulin, engineer, on December 29, 1953, at 3:45 a.m. The luminous trail reveals that the craft, motionless for a few moments, made a jump and stopped above the Eiffel Tower.
[Ref. bbk1:] USAF PROJECT BLUE BOOK:
| DATE | LOCATION | OBSERVER | EVALUATION |
| 2846 20 | Paris, France (Fowler) (INFO) | [Censored] PHOTO |
[Ref. hws1:] HAROLD T. WILKINS:
The author indicates that on December 28, 1954, at 03:45 a.m., in Paris, Mr. Paulin saw in the sky, between the Eiffel Tower and the Parc des Expositions, at a height that was not easy to estimate, a disc emitting a bluish phosphorescence. The object was motionless.
Having a camera, Mr. Paulin took a picture of the object, giving the film an exposure of two minutes. In this time, the disc slowly shifted to the right. The disc appeared to be studying the center of Paris, then vanished at very high speed. The Observatory had no comment to make.
[Ref. jgu1:] JIMMY GUIEU:
The year 1953 ends with a major observation. In the night from December 28 to 29, at 3:45 of the morning, Mr. Paul Paulin, engineer, noticed in the sky of Paris a very brilliant gleam. He first of all thought that it was the beacon of the Eiffel Tower but, amazed, he quickly realized that it was not this.
The beam of the beacon continued its rotation, sweeping the sky of its luminous finger while the "thing" was immobilized between the Eiffel Tower and the Parc des expositions. Mr. Paulin installed his camera and promptly set the aperture at 3,5 for a two minutes exposure. During the shooting, the machine, of a bluish phosphorescence, made a jump and was immobilized again (see illustration n° 12 [Actually 6]). After a short moment, the discoid apparatus departed and disappeared at high speed.
This document is the best obtained so far in France. The setting being two minutes, if it were a fake, the luminous cone of the beacon would have been "caught" on the negative one. The angle swept by the projector should have produced a luminous triangle starting on the basis of the top of the Eiffel Tower and being spread out from the first luminous spot (saucer in the first position) to the second (saucer in second position). Nothing of all that is visible. This document can thus be recognized for authentic.
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[Caption of the image above:]
Illustration #6 -- Photograph of a luminous disc caught in Paris by Mr. Paul Paulin, engineer, on December 29, 1953, at 3:45 of the morning. During the 2 mn exposure, the discoid machine which had been immobilized made a jump and was immobilized again, between the Eifel Tower and the Parc des Expositions. The photograph clearly shows the luminous trail produced by the displacement of the lenticular apparatus.
[Ref. lrh1:] LARRY ROBINSON AND C.H. GIBBS-SMITH:
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That leads us to photographs, and they are some of the most dangerous weapons which well-informed scoffers can use against those of us who are trying to sift truth from non-truth. Just look at the plate opposite page 160 of Guieu's new book: the Eiffel Tower is actually drawn - yes, repeat drawn. Even if the u.f.o, flying over it is perfectly genuine, the presence of that doctored tower simply rules the whole thing out of court at the start: it is no excuse or defence to say the tower was really there in the original photograph and has just been touched np. Once you linker with a negative or a print, you lose all right to serious consideration, and you are - to a greater or less extent - faking it. The drawing in this plate in question is not even well done. Then look at the two photos opposite his page 81: show those dark opaque lines round the u.f.o. to a professional photographer or process engraver and ask him what he thinks. Now, the point is this: I do not say or imply that these two particular photos are fakes or doctored - whereas the Eiffel Tower one is doctored without question - but anything that looks so suspicious shouldn't be published, as it can only do more harm than good. If you take a photo of a genuine saucer which - on development - looks suspicious, it is even better not to publish it at all.
[Ref. jdn1:] JEAN-PHILIPPE DAIN:
Ref. UFOTO: 0446
29 DEC 1953 3:45
Location: PARIS (FRA) / Author: PAULIN Paul
[Ref. uck1:] "UFO CASEBOOK" WEBSITE:
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1953 - Paris, France, Eiffel Tower. Double discs are seen passing over Eiffel Tower at 3:45 AM, in 1953 as M. Paulin took this picture.
The photograph is from the Michael Mann collection and was published in TRUE Magazine at the time.
A very interesting photograph, and not a bad one considering the time period, and the distance from camera to object. Look at the original image to see the two objects over the Tower.
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[Ref. jbo1:] VICENTE-JUAN BALLESTER-OLMOS:
| Date | 12-29-1953 |
| Approx | |
| 03,45 | |
| UFO | Fake |
| OK | |
| Paris, Ville de Paris (France) | |
| Nation | FRA |
| 75 | |
| Photo Film | PHOTO |
| Paul Paulin | |
| France Soir (Paris), Jan 31, 1954, quoted in Corriere Lombardo (Milano), Feb 1, 1954. Larry Robinson. C.H. Gibbs-Smith. Flying Saucer Review, Vol 2, No 2, March-April 1956, p. 7.Harold T. Wilkins, Flying Saucers Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, p 245. G. de Turris and S. Fusco, Obiettivo sugli UFO, Mediterranee, 1975, p 113. R. Jackson, U.F-O.s, Shooting Star, 1995, p 29. Jimmy Guieu, Flying Saucers Come from Another World, Frederick Muller, 1956, p. 140 (or plate opposite p. 160) (not consulted). Mattern-Friedrich, UFO: Nazi Secret Weapon?, Samisdat, 1975, p. 137. Reuben Stone, UFO Investigation, p. 29. http://www.bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=NARA-Pbbk1-106 USAF. Dossier OVNI, Orbis, 1997, issue number 24, p 118. http://www.ufocasebook.com/bestufopictures.html December 29, 1953 |
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The reasoning of Jimmy Guieu is fishy on one very big thing at least.
If this "craft" were not the aeronautical beacon of the Eiffel Tower installed a few time earlier, in 1952 (below), how is it that it is not visible on the photograph, in addition to the craft, with this exposure 2 minutes time?
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My interpretation is that it was actually the Eiffel tower beacon, illuminating a cloud layer.
Indeed, I see the possibility of tracing its trajectory. I think that the beacon passed from one position to the other alternatively. At the second position; which it (the so-called machine) had just taken at the end of the exposure, we do have the luminous trail connecting it to the first position. And if I look at the image well, I see the weak traces of the two sides of the sweeping of the lighted cloud between the two positions.
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(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Paris, Paulin, disc, glowing, blue, phosphorescent, slow, motionless, fast, photograph
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 21, 2006 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 26, 2008 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | December 20, 2016 | Additions [bbk1], [jgu1], [jdn1], [uck1], [jbo1]. Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet." |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | August 25, 2019 | Additions [lrh1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | November 4, 2020 | Additions [nfr1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraph "In 1954 newspapers and magazines..." and "Because the 'disc'..." Harold Wilkins paragraph changed, was "In his 1954 book "Flying Saucers Uncensored", British author Harold Wilkins mistakenly dated December 28, 1954, an alleged photo of a flying saucers over Paris at the Eiffel Tower, actually dated December 28 or 29, 1953:" |
