The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 4-Nov-54-Montreuil-aux-Lions.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The local newspaper Le Courier de la Région de Fourmies for November 6, 1954 reported that at Montreuil around 8:15 pm "last Thursday" including November 4, 1954, a reddish semicircle was seen by the bartender of the Seine.
The latter immediately alerted his neighbors "who for a few moments admired the... rising of the moon."
[Ref. crf1:] NEWSPAPER "LE COURIER DE LA REGION DE FOURMIE":
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Another saucer! This time it is in Rocquigny, exactly in Montreuil around 8:15 p.m. last Thursday, that a reddish semicircle was seen by the bartender of the Seine.
The latter immediately alerted his neighbors who for a few moments admired the... rising of the moon.
There are several "Montreuil" et several "Rocquigny" in France; but this was abour Rocquigny, commune of the Aisne department, and Montreuil was thus Montreuil-aux-Lions, in the Aisne department also.
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It would be a "negative case" as it was explained after "a few moments" by a part of the witnesses themselves.
From this place, on this date and this hour, the Moon was indeed in the sky, in its last quarter with 60° of its surface lit by the sun, in the direction 192° 45', but at a rather significant elevation of 29°, not very suitable for misinterpretations and not very favorable for a "red moon" effect.
The Moon rose at 02:15 p.m. already, and it only set 50 minutes after midnight, it moved almost horizontally across the sky, which casts doubt on the accuarcy of the newspaper report.
It is not impossible that the setting was an invention of the newspaper, but all this leaves me with some doubts about the reality of the anedote reported in the newspaper; it could just be a partially or totally fabricated "educational story."
So: moon or journalistic invention.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Montreuil-aux-Lions, Aisne, half-circle, red, barman, multiple, moon, negative case
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| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 25, 2020 | First published. |
