The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 29-Sep-54-Rigney.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The newspaper L'Est Républicain for October 2, 1954, reported that a resident of Besançon who until now had been "skeptical", had seen a "saucer" in the sky of Rigney in the Doubs.
The witness, Mr. Gazon, teacher at the Saint-Etienne school, rue Ponchaux, in Besançon, told his story on the evening of October 1, 1954, to the newspaper's office in Besançon.
He reported that "Wednesday", therefore on September 29, 1954, around 8 p.m., he was returning home in the Haute-Saône, in Filain, using the road through Marchaux and Rigney. He had just passed the Rigney station and he was climbing, at the wheel of his 4CV car, a small hill in the vicinity of the large farm of La Roche, when he saw an oblong object appear on his left.
He said:
"It was certainly not an aerolite, for those fall generally in rain. This object moved on the contrary horizontally at a very high speed from the left to the right.
It was impossible for me to evaluate neither its approximate size, nor the distance to which it was from me. In the eye, it made me the effect of an object which would have been about fifty centimetres long; i.e. rather large. It was accompanied by a phosphorescent gleam of bluish colour."
He was so impressed that he stopped his car and got out of it to get a better look, but when he was out he saw nothing and heard no noise.
He also reported to the newspaper that a few kilometers earlier he had observed several rather vague luminous phenomena in the sky comparable to lightning.
He ended his story by giving his opinion:
"If you want my opinion on all these stories of saucers and cigars, I would say to you that I do not believe that all this comes from another planet. From now on, I believe in the existence of the flying saucers, but I do not believe in the Martians."
The case will appear summarized in Aimé Michel's 1958 book, with an affirmation of an "alignment" not attributable to the chance of this case with others of September 29, 1954. This will be taken up by many others later.
[Ref. ler1:] NEWSPAPER "L'EST REPUBLICAIN":
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Besancon (from our newsroom). -- "Until now, I was skeptical but now I am not skeptical anymore" told us yesterday evening, while speaking about the flying saucers, a person completely worthy of faith since he is a teacher, Mr. Gazon, of the Saint-Etienne school, street Ponchaux, in Besançon.
Wednesday, at approximately 8 p.m., Mr. Gazon was going back home in the Haute-Saône, in Filain. He used the road while passing by Marchaux and Rigney. He came to exceed the train station of this city and he climbed, at the wheel of his 4CV [popular compact car], the small hill near the big farm of la Roche, when he saw emerging on his left an object which had the oblong form that one allots to the flying saucers or the cigars, according to the image one employs to talk about them when one sees them.
"It was certainly not an aerolite, told us Mr. Gazon, for those fall generally in rain. This object moved on the contrary horizontally at a very high speed from the left to the right.
It was impossible for me to evaluate neither its approximate size, nor the distance to which it was from me. In the eye, it made me the effect of an object which would have been about fifty centimetres long; i.e. rather large. It was accompanied by a phosphorescent gleam of bluish colour."
Mr. Gazon was so much impressed that he stopped his car and went down for better noting the phenomenon. But when he was on the ground, he did not see anything any more and especially he did not hear any noise.
He announced to us, in addition, that a few kilometers before he had noticed in the sky several rather vague luminous phenomena comparable to flashes.
He finished his report by giving us this appreciation which implies that he is not a person likely to invent stories nor to believe in confusing things: "If you want my opinion on all these stories of saucers and cigars, I would say to you that I do not believe that all this comes from another planet. From now on, I believe in the existence of the flying saucers, but I do not believe in the Martians."
In addition, our correspondent of Rougemont, agglomeration located in the direction of Rigney, passed the following information to us: A resident of Montagney, coming back from Rougemont, Wednesday evening, was very surprised to discover in the sky an immense gleam coming from a sphere of approximately the size of the moon when it is full.
Going faster, he returned to the village and alerted his neighbors. This luminous object, though smaller than previously, was still quite visible. Six people managed to look at it. The saucer, if it were really one, moved from East to West.
Let us notice that this direction coincides with that indicated by Mr. Gazon.
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
Aimé Michel noted a number of sightings on September 29, 1954, and says there was one in Rigney, in the Doubs.
He said that at about 8 p.m., Mr. Gazon, a teacher in Besançon, was driving on the national road 486 to return home in Filain in the Haute-Saône. He had just passed Rigney, 15 kilometers southwest of Montagney, when he saw emerge on the left, that is to say, in his north field, an oblong object spinning horizontally to the west and spreading a greenish white light.
He looked at it a while, then stopped and went down, but the object disappeared quickly. He had stopped his engine, and could note that the object made no sound.
"A few miles before seeing the object itself," he had reported, "I noticed in the sky some weird fugitive brightness."
Michel indicates his source is the Charles Garreau file.
[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:
September 29 [, 1954]
[... Other cases...]
08:00 p.m.: Montagney(2km WSW Rougemont)/Rigney (Doubs):elong.obj.
[... Other cases...]
[Ref. jve5:] JACQUES VALLEE:
| 163 | -006.17661 | 47.38950 | 29 | 09 | 1954 | 20 | 00 | 101 | RIGNEY | F | 1511 | C** | 155 |
[Ref. jve1:] JACQUES VALLEE:
Jacques Vallée lists a sighting in Rigney, France, on September 29, 1954.
[Ref. ldl1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":
In an article about the alleged UFO trace case of Marliens in 1967, the magazine noted:
On September 29, 1954, an object was observed along a line Rigney (in the Doubs), [... other cases...]
[Ref. cgu1:] CHARLES GARREAU:
Evoking the case of Marliens in 1967, this author, journalist and pioneering ufologist, explained that the site of this "landing" is at the intersection of "aligned" cases including in particular that of Rigney in the Doubs on September 29, 1954.
[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:
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Montagney, France. 8:00 p.m. September 29th.
A huge, bright object that rivaled the full moon in size lit up the countryside around the French village of Montagney at 8:00 p.m. The object soared east to west much slower than a meteor because a resident of the village that witnessed the appearance was able to alert others to the phenomenon, and more importantly, the brillant object flew out of sight under the clouds.
A motorist, Mr. Gazon, on Route N 486 to the southwest of Montagney, was driving passed the community of Rigney when he caught sight of the UFO. He said it was an oblong object on a horizontal course, giving off a green white light.
Elsewhere in the area, a motorcyclist speeding along Route N-470 near Painblanc observed the passage of a green-white body, apparently the same object.
Some 70 miles beyond Painblanc at Langeron another sighting was made. Riding a bicycle on Route N-151 a M. Raymond Deloire spotted an object in the sky approaching him from the west. It was a luminous, hemispherical shape, orange in color instead of green-white. It travelled silently.
Other French towns reporting UFOs on the 29th were: Landeda-L'Aber Wrac'h in the French department of Finistere in Brittany, and Cabestany in the French department of Pyrenees Orientas [sic] which is near Spain. 154.
[...]
154. Paris, France. France-Soir. 2 October 54
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Doubs in Rigney on September 29, 1954 at 20:00 hours, "The witness comes from Besancon and drives on the N486. He has just passed the borough when he sees emerging on his left an object of ovoid shape slipping by horizontally towards the west and spreeding a greenish white light. The witness stopped his vehicle and got out of it, but the object quickly disappeared. A few km before the observation the witness had observed curious fugitive luminosities in the sky."
The source is indicated as "M.O.C. par Michel Aimé ** Arthaud 1958".
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 29 September 1954 at 20:00 on the N486, near Rigney, France, "A cigar-shaped object was observed. One cigar-shaped object was observed by one witness in a pasture for over one minute (Gazon)."
The sources are indicated as Michel, Aime, Flying Saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery, S. G. Phillips, New York, 1958; Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073); Vallee, Jacques, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1966; Vallee, Jacques, Preliminary Catalog (N = 500), (in JVallee01); Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002.
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
This database recorded this case 3 times:
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19540929 | 29.09.1954 | Rigney | France | 20.00 | NL | |||||
| 19540929 | 29.09.1954 | Rigney | France | 20.00 | ||||||
| 19540929 | 29.09.1954 | Rigney | France | 20.00 | NL | |||||
| 19540924 | 24.09.1954 | Besancon | France | 18.00 |
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The September 29, 1954, meteor, about 08:30 p.m.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Rigney, Doubs, Gazon, night, object, ovoid, light, white, greenish, luminosities
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 25, 2010 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | May 25, 2010 | Addition [ler1]. Change of explanation from "Not looked for yet" to "Obvious description of a meteor". |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | June 19, 2010 | Addition [jve5]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | July 7, 2010 | Addition [cgu1]. |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | September 30, 2014 | Addition [aml1]. Explanation changed from "Obvious description of a meteor" to "The September 29, 1954, meteor, about 08:30 p.m." |
| 1.5 | Patrick Gross | February 10, 2017 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.6 | Patrick Gross | November 20, 2021 | Additions [gqy1], [ldl1], Summary. |
| 1.7 | Patrick Gross | April 7, 2022 | Additions [lgs1]. |
