The 1954 French flap:

Better and better

In Tourriers, about thirty witnesses saw during nearly twenty minutes a "flying cigar"

The twelve strikes of midnight had just resounded. In the room of the restaurant-bar of the "Le Relais des as du volant", located at the edge of Main road 19, at the exit of Tourriers, late consumers chattered with the barman Friday evening. Six young people of Angoulême, among them the son of Mr. Alexandre, played pool. The conversation related, of course, to the flying saucers. Half an hour before, a lorry driver, driver for the Guillot company, of Poitiers, indeed had said to have seen while passing close to the careers of Chauvauds, five luminous points on the ground.

Mr. Pruneau, the owner of le Relais, had listened to his account while smiling, then, raising the shoulders: "Me, these stories of flying saucers, he said, I hardly believe in it! As long as I don't see one myself... " And he went up to bed.

At this time a truck driver rushed into the room: "Come on, guys, come to see what's above the road!" He explained that while going down the slope that goes to Tourriers, when you come from Poitiers, he had seen in the gleam of his headlights a big mass that raised from the left edge of the road and then had stopped at a certain hight where it still stood.

If a coffee room were ever quickly evacuated, it was indeed that of le Relais that night. Soon all the inhabitants of the house actually, were on the road, some barefoot or in light clothes. There was, apart from the truck drivers and of consumers of the bar, Mr. and Mrs. Pruneau, awaked by their clerk, Henri Brigandet and Tony Blanc, drivers of the factories Dassault of Paris, the drivers of the Duboué house of Bordeaux, those of the Lachin house, of Oléron Sainte-Marie, those of the Docks of the Alcohols of Paris and others still arrived in these circumstances and who had stopped, intrigued by all these people nose in the air.

Thus approximately 30 people distinctly saw - the night being relatively clear - a kind of large rugby ball (these are the own words used by Mr. Pruneau) motionless at approximately forty meters of the ground. The machine on which one of distinguished no light carried at its point like two small wings. It may have measured approximately 4 m. 50 in length and 1 m. 50 to 2 m. in diameter.

It remained there without the least movement, without emitting the least noise during nearly twenty minutes.

At a certain time, the awestruck witnesses of this strange display had the impression that the machine went down again towards the road. They rushed all running, but at this time precise the "cigar" went up, but this time much higher than before.

Soon besides, it had, always silent, put itself in motion, then took speed and disappeared at the pace of a commercial aircraft, in the direction of Angoulême.

It is useless to say that, since Saturday, the principal object of all the conversations in Tourriers and that Mr. Pruneau - still without believing, of course, to the "flying saucers" and the stories of Martians - wonders all the same with perplexity what could the mysterious machine have been that he was not the only one to have seen.

A LUMINOUS CRAFT IN SAINT-CLAUD

Mr. Puygelier, 24 years old, driver at Mr. Prévotel, in Saint-Claud, returning from his work at the wheel of his truck, saw, in the night from October 8th to 9th, at approcimately 11 p.m., at the place called Bel-Air, within 500 meters of the borough, a luminous machine of lengthened form, resembling a gigantic egg. Mr. Puygelier saw the machine going down, then oscillate a few moments at a low height, to finally land behind a hedge, at a few meters of the road.

Seized of a big fright, he continued his travel until St-Claud. Then, recovered of his emotions, he returned accompanied by a witness. The machine had disappeared, but at the same place they distinguished a motionless human silhouette, on the slope and of a size that they could not specify, considering the darkness!

The next day morning, many residents of St-Claud went on the spot where they could see a long trail of approximately three meters and where the grass was completely burned. Around, the grass was strongly trampled.

One loses oneself in conjectures and all the assumptions are put forth...