The 1954 French flap:

A Flying Cigar
in Avignon

One of our esteemed fellow citizens, Mr. Léon Saignez, a fervent motorcyclist, was returning Tuesday evening, from a short night ride, when on the Saze plateau, he suddenly saw the sky crossed by a strange craft, offering the appearance of a cigar surrounded by a vivid glow.

As soon as he arrived in Avignon, he shared his bizarre encounter with his boss, Mr. Bourgin, who is at the head of military handling and who was a high-class aviator pilot.

There is no doubt that our fellow citizen has been another witness to the extravagant appearance of flying cigars.

About the
flying saucers

We recounted the day before yesterday, the conditions under which, one of our distinguished fellow citizens, Mr. Léon Saigne, baker at Military Handling, had seen a strange luminous machine in the sky when he was returning from a might motorcycle ride.

This fact which, moreover, is no longer an exception has been repeated to us, is confirmed by another witness, Mr. Richaud Gabriel, driver at the Minoterie Chevalier in Sorgues, who accompanied Mr. Saignez on his walk.

We were also able to reach MM. Saignez and Richaud, at the Manutention Militaire where in the presence of Mrs. and Mr. Bourgin, the distinguished director, they were able to satisfy our curiosity.

It was Mr. Saignez who first saw the luminous craft in the sky while he was riding his motorcycle. He immediately slows down, inviting his colleague to do the same in order to show him the strange apparition.

What did they saw? An oval object surrounded by a very vivid glow, seemingly animated by a rotating movement and passing not far from them at a very high speed.

Seized with terror, they did not think of stopping the engine of their motorcycles, which prevented them from hearing whether the craft emitted any sound.

MM. Saignez and Richaud Gabriel, whose good faith cannot be doubted, are convinced that this is not a jet plane and much less a natural phenomenon.

Note that a mysterious craft was also seen by Mr. Georges Fontaimpe, tailor, in Avignon.

THE SECTION OF THE FIFTIES.

In Vaucluse Ufologie #7, we gave you the list of all the cases of observation that we had for the period of the fifties, from 1950 to 1959. But since this publication we have been able to update this list, complete it and, sometimes, specify it further. It is above all because Jean Pierre Troadec endeavored to update his file for this period, with the aim of compiling a catalog of all the cases of UFO sightings on the Vaucluse that GREPO will make known in some time in a special issue of our bulletin, which I can give you today a new list. This new list obviously eliminates the previous one which contained many date errors, but it is still imprecise in certain cases. I hope that it can serve you usefully, or even generate investigations or counter-investigations; and, if you have new elements or other cases that we do not have, let us know and I will communicate them in this section with your references.

[... other cases...]

.8° - 09/31/54 - - Avignon. 1 unusual object (without specification of the hour)

[... other cases...]