The 1954 French flap:

Flying saucer stories

The appearance of a saucer and armed Martians terrifies a bressan schoolgirl

Bourg. October 7. - The small town of Dommartin near Montrevel has been in turmoil on a rather relative manner by the way with the story of a young schoolgirl in the locality, Miss Manigand, 12-year-old, living with her parents in the hamlet of Marsily.

Sobbing a lot and appearing hopelessly plagued by the deepest fear, the girl said that it was around 7 in the morning, going to catechism, that she witnessed the apparition.

She saw, she clarified, a flying saucer hovering close over her head and out of which two strange beings armed with long knives came out.

The emotion of the child was such that when she finally arrived at school, it took all the care of her teacher, Miss Puvilland, to succeed in calming her down.

However, despite the wealth of detail with which she surrounded her statement, the girl is the only one in the country to testify, no other local resident reported the passage of any saucer.

No doubt we should put her fright on the account of a too vivid imagination, the young Manigand having gone alone that day, to the village, whereas she usually goes with a few friends.

As for the Martians - that we "had never seen the weapons in hand" - they went away, as far as the schoolgirl said, without even touching the ground.

M.P.

A mysterious craft in the sky of Chambéry

Chambery, October 7. - A resident of Bellevue, who asked us to conceal his name, has observed this day, at 1 p.m., along with all members of his family, a mysterious machine operating at very low speed above Beauvoir.

The craft, which had a metallic gray color, suddenly accelerated, took altitude and disappeared towards the Cross of Nivolet.

According to the observer, the phenomenon lasted about five minutes.

Could it be a flying saucer... or a large transport aircraft?

A resident of Lugrin (near Thonon) reportedly saw two Martians!

Thonon, October 7. - Ms. Elise Blanc, of Lugrin, claims that on August 23, she met two strange men near a contraption that looked like an aluminum camping trailer. The two small beings, about 1 m. 20 tall, were dressed in silvery suits.

When they saw Mrs. Blanc, they grunted like pigs and jumped into their machine that rose, becoming the color of fire, to then disappear in a multicolored cloud.

Some years ago, Ms. Blanc had picked up a brown dog she claimed to be the descendant of the wild beasts that ravaged the flocks in the Valais and the Haut-Chablais.

Mysterious luminous craft in the sky of the Bugey

Montalieu, October 7. -- In the afternoon of Tuesday, while the weather was perfectly clear, several people who were at St. Baudille-de-la-Tour, towards Brotel, not far from President Herriot's residence, saw a mysterious craft at low altitude over the mountains of the Bugey.

According to the testimony of Mr. Vigano, mattress maker in Montalieu, the elongated craft seemed to measure 4 to 6 m. in length. Each end was as bright as a sunbeam.

At the same time, people of St. Sorlain-en-Bugey on the bank of the Rhone on the side of the department of Ain, made a similar observation.