The 1954 French flap:

Mans, Cherbourg, Finistere, Indre & Mulhouse, France, October 8, 1954

Paris, Oct. 9 (AFP) -- On Friday, several mysterious craft were once more seen in the sky of France.

1. Near Mans, a milk collector declared that his truck stopped for an unknown reason and that, when he got out, he saw a luminous red and blue flying cigar, about a meter long, pass over him. When the machine had disappeared, the truck motor began again to operate.

2. At Cherbourg, several people saw a "luminous sphere" at a rather high altitude. After hovering over the town, this disappeared toward the south.

3. In Finistere, many people were alarmed by a luminous sphere maneuvering only about a dozen meters from the ground, which seemed to move toward them.

4. A resident of the Indre observed a gray-colored object motionless at about 100 meters of altitude. That craft then departed at a very brisk pace, leaving a sort of fog behind it. Another resident of this department declared that he saw a luminous pale red-orange object moving along a north-south axis.

5. Finally, a road-mender of the Mulhouse region says that he saw a hemi-spherical, internally illuminated cupola in a field. Before taking to his heels he had time to notice that a door was opening on the craft. The object maneuvered above him before disappearing.

36/08 - 1954 October 08 (? - Indre)

Place and date uncertain. There is just one paragraph of a memo from the US Air Force Blue Book program which was responsible for studying UFO sighting reports and gathering media information on the matter. The text below is the translation of a brief from Agence France Presse (AFP) of October 9, 1954.

"A resident of the Indre observed a motionless gray object at an altitude of about 100 meters. This craft then left at a very brisk pace, leaving a kind of fog behind it. Another resident of this department said he saw a faint, luminous red-orange object moving along a north-south axis."

(Source: Patrick Gross's "UFOs at close sight" website)