The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 31-Aug-54-Chennevières.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In his book about the 1954 French saucer flap, ufologist Aimé Michel explained that he received two letters, from people who did not know each other, about an observation on August 31, 1954 in the Paris region.
The first observation was that of Orly, which can be explained by two, then one more, jet airplanes flying high.
Michel said that this observation in Orly coincides perfectly with the second observation, which took place at 07:30 p.m. also, in Chennevières-sur-Marne, 12 to 16 kilometers east-north-east of Orly.
So, in Chennevière, two witnesses saw an object described as "a very long and very brilliant egg", and reported this by letter to the newspaper Le Parisien Libéré, who forwarded the letter to Michel.
These witnesses had attached to their letter a draft map which indicated the direction of flight for the object, west-southwest to east-northeast, thus passing over Orly.
[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:
|
August 31 [1954]
07:32 p.m.: Chennevières-sur-Marne (16 km E.N.E. of Orly--Seine-et-Marne): elongated egg
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
Aimé Michel reports that two people of Chennevières at 16 kilometers in the East-North-East of Orly saw an object passing on August 31, 1954 at 07:30 p.m. and reported about it by letter to the newspaper Le Parisien Libéré, and the newspaper forwarded their letter to Michel.
The witnesses joined a rough map of the sighting to their letter, which indicated a west-south-west to east-north-east flightpath, thus passing above Orly. The object was described as "a very long and very shining egg."
[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:
"False saucer" excites France.
Things didn't really begin to boil over in France until the very end of the month (the 31st) when a spark shedding meteor exploded in the sky at extreme altitude above Paris (8:20 p.m.). People in 20 departments of France witnessed the show resulting in hundreds of reports being made to the newspapers.
UFOlogist Aime Michel was satisfied with the meteor hypothesis since there was no evidence to indicate otherwise, however the following afternoon (12:50 p.m.) a group of six persons, watching military aircraft perform in the sky over Asnieres-les-Dijon, which is about five miles north of Dijon, spotted a mysterious glowing body crossing the heavens east to west at an altitude that exceeded that of the French airplanes. During its quick passage, the strange object changed color from red, to orange, and then finally to silver.
Michel's collaborator, Charles Garreau, a Dijon resident, checked into the incident and was puzzled over the speed. The thing seemed to be too slow to be a meteor and too fast to be an airplane. 216.
Michel began to suspect something unusual was looming when he learned that about six hours after the sighting near Dijon, witnesses in the Paris region observed two orange-colored oval-shaped objects crossing the sky in a side by side formation. He became aware of the sighting from two independent sources.
Just by chance a Mrs. A. Fouquiau of Orly, noticed the speeding pair of UFOs as they came out of the western sky, cannonballing eastward. Startled and instantly convinced a rare event was in the making, Mrs. Fouquiau summoned her husband and young daughter to "come and see" the "chunky cigars." Highly curious, the trio of witnesses kept watch after the UFOs passed out of sight and were rewarded when another object, a carbon copy of the others, came into view on the same course.
This third object was evidently also witnessed by some people at the town of Chennevieres-les-Louvres a dozen miles away to the northeast, when at 7:30 p.m. a "very long bright egg" zoomed overhead. If the objects in question were "meteors," wondered Michel, how come Mrs. Fouquiau had time to call her family to come and look at the objects? 217.
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Val de Marne in Chennevières sur Marne on August 31, 1954 at 19:30 "Two witnesses observe an object of ovoid form, but long and shining going from the west-south-west towards the east-north-east."
The source is indicated as "M.O.C. by Michel Aimé ** Arthaud 1958".
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 31 August 1954 at 19:30 in "Chennevieres.Louvre, France" a "Very long, bright egg traveled southwest to northeast." "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One ovoid object was observed by two witnesses."
The source is indicated as Michel, Aime, Flying Saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery, S. G. Phillips, New York, 1958.
[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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19540831 | 31.08.1954 | Chennevieres | France | 19.30 | NL |
|
Michel indicated "Chennevières" for short, it was not very precise, since Loren Gross is then mistakenly thinking that it was Chennevières-lès-Louvres. Michel indicated that the place was 16 kilometers from Orly, and that coincides with Chennevières-sur-Marne, 12-16 kilometers from Orly, better than Chennevières-lès-Louvres; which is 31 kilometers from Orly.
As of the case, this might very well be a high flying jet fighter plane (see the explanations for the Orly sighting).
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Chennevières-sur-Marne, Chennevière-les-Louvres, Val-de-Marne, egg, shining, trail
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 3, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | November 12, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1], [uda1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | November 20, 2016 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | November 25, 2016 | Addition [lgs1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | July 4, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet. Meteor or airplane possible." |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | February 20, 2021 | Addition [gqy1]. |
