The 1954 French flap:

NEW APPARITIONS
OF FLYING SAUCERS
In our region

A luminous globe in the sky of Brive

Brive (P.C.) - It might have been ten o'clock in the evening when, on Monday, Mr. Marcel Mazouaud, a painting contractor in Brive, saw from his window moving at a very high altitude and at high speed a mass of a blinding brightness.

He did not believe his eyes at first, but having taken the binoculars, he accepted the obvious, it was indeed a luminous globe and it could in no way be a shooting star, or a jet plane.

M. Mazouaud estimated at several kilometers the altitude at which this machine moved in a straight line without tracing any trajectory.

Mrs. Mazouaud, his wife, was able to attend this strange display, and the next morning a rumor spread in town, a resident of Brive had finally caught sight of something that looked like a flying saucer.

A "flying cigar" in the Corrèze

Tulle (C.P.). - On Monday, around 4 p.m., a brilliant object was moving in the Corrèze sky at a very high altitude and imagination helping, many witnesses identified it as a flying saucer; whereas it was actually only a jet airplane.

But two hours later another much more troubling phenomenon was observed above Forgèse [sic, Forgès], flying at a low altitude. A silent machine in the shape of a cigar moved slowly. Many people saw it and examined it at length, especially in the two villages of Chammard and Brugieux. Two witnesses told us that this curious machine seemed to have a propeller at the front.

At the end of a few minutes the flying cigar suddenly dove vertically and disappeared quickly leaving all those who had followed its evolutions until then literally stupefied.

A BRIVE

Lundi soir à 22 heures, M. Marcel Mazouaud, a painter entrepreneur of Louis-Mie street, saw something moving in the sky of Brive, approximately just above the school of domestic arts, a kind of luminous ball which light illuminated the sky. This ball disappeared in the direction of the toad to Bordeaux after Mr. Mazouaud kept it in sight during 4 to 5 minutes. He had the time to get binoculars to observe it and to alert his spouse, as well as his neighbours Mr. and Mrs Gagnebe [...]

OCT. 4

Monday evening at 10 P.M., M. Marcel Mazouaud, an art dealer of Louis-Mie street (Brive) saw something moving in the sky, apparently just about over the school of domestic science. It was a sort of luminous ball which lighted up the whole sky. It disappeared, after M. Mazouaud had watched it for 4 or 5 minutes, in the direction of the Bordeaux road. He had time to take his field glasses, and to notify his wife and his neighbours, M. and Mme Gagnebe, who also saw it perfectly. (Presumably there was more, telling what he saw through the glasses).