ufo - UFOS at close sight: the 1954 French flap, May, Cagnes, Alpes-Maritimes

Reference for this case: May-53-54-Cagnes.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

The first publication about this case was the investigation report by the Centre de Recherches Ufologique Niçois, in La Revue des Soucoupes Volantes, Michel Moutet editor, in 1977:

This local ufology group, represented by investigators Christian Hycnar and Eric Zurcher - who wrote the report - explains that Mr. P. Cavallo, 74 years old at the time of the investigation, appeared to have witnessed the brief appearance of a flying saucer pilot.

He is described as a "good man" whose sincerity is beyond doubt, who received the investigator with kindness and warmth, who did a lot of things in his life, including being a comedian, by which one should not deduce that he invented his story.

It is said that he said that he could have "added more", because "it is so easy", but he assured that things really went as he says.

In May 1953 or 1954 - he could not remember the exact year very well - he was a projectionist in a cinema in Cagnes-sur-Mer, and, his work finished, he returned home like every night by the same path, Ziem Avenue, deserted and covered with hedges and brush on the sides.

He walked slowly, holding his bicycle in his hand, and filling his little basket with snails. He remembers well that he could easily see the snails on the ground, which suggested to investigators that the moon was up.

At around 00:30 a.m., he was surprised by the appearance in the sky of a shiny cigar, a luminous shape, orange in color with blue "glitter" inside, which was heading from the South to the North, at a speed and distance he could not determine; which was probably 200 to 300 meters. The craft was quite low, approximately at the level of the eyes of the witness who himself was at the top of the last descent of the avenue.

The object passed for between 20 and 30 seconds, leaving behind a "tail" of orange sparks, in total silence.

Mr. Cavallo stood there, dumbfounded, for about forty seconds, wondering what the phenomenon he had just seen could be.

He then sensed a presence on his right, and as he turned his head he saw a face that seemed human to him but very strange.

The face was extremely pale, with a perfectly bare skull, small blue eyes that stared at him without harshness, an expression that resembled "a blissful smile!" Mr. Cavallo did not see the body hidden in the undergrowth.

Stuck in place, Mr. Cavallo stared at the stranger for a few seconds, wondering who he was dealing with, "maybe a madman!"

Not knowing what to do, he got on his bike and hurtled down Ziem Avenue, wondering if it was polite to leave people like this.

The next day, Mr. Cavallo, intrigued, but more confident because it was daylight, returned to the spot, and behind the hedge where he had seen the character. He found no trace, but noticed with amazement that this hedge was only three feet high.

Since then, he hadn't stopped thinking about it, wondering if he had really seen something or if he had had a bad dream, sometimes coming to doubt himself, until two weeks later, when telling his story to some friends, one of them jumped in the air exclaiming "I'm not crazy!", because he too had seen the UFO pass by, but from a different vantage point.

The investigators say they are convinced that everything happened like he said, that he certainly saw an alien, an idea which to him "seems more stupid than anything else..."

They then evoke a possible misinterpretation, with someone who could have been squatting behind the hedge 40 seconds after the passage of the U.F.O., Mr. Cavallo then associating the two.

The investigators asked how Mr. Cavallo was able to determine, in the night, the color of the eyes of the stranger; they insisted on this point, but the witness could not answer them, he was just sure that the eyes were blue.

The investigators then engage in comparisons with other similar cases in other years, which, they say, reinforced their idea that the character was an alien.

The second publication about the case was a 1979 British publication in a catalog by the French ufologist Alain Gamard; it only told that there was an observation in May 1953 or 1954 by a certain Pierre Cavallo, the sources would be Nice-Matin for April 24, 1977, and "La revue des soucoupes volantes", No. 2.

In 1979, Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon, then in 1993 in "OVNI en Provence", Michel Figuet and Henri Julien, said much more: in May 1954 or maybe 1953, M. C., about fifty-year-old, was returning home after finishing his job, pushing his bicycle and picking up snails.

He suddenly saw in front of him a short distance, a "cigar shining in the sky, orange with glitter around, a tail lost in its wake, in total silence", a few seconds of a "magnificent and surprising show."

Taken aback, he remained for some time to think about it, perplexed and worried. He gave up his fruitful harvest and decided to leave the place, but then, he had the confused feeling of not being alone.

He looked mechanically around him and finally saw a face above a hedge, strange, very pale, with a perfectly bald head, big friendly eyes, a kind of thin and happy smile. The body was hidden by the hedge.

There was no apparent hostility, no questioning, no gesture, but the witness became frightened, got on his bicycle and fled at full speed down the Ziem Avenue of Cagnes-sur-Mer.

The next day, he returned to the place and found out that the hedge was only 90 cm high.

Two weeks later, he told his misadventure to friends, and one of them told him that the same night at the same time, from a nearby but different observation place, he had seen at a short distance the same luminous phenomenon.

The witness was reassured and convinced that he had not dreamed. He has long remembered the "bright-eyed moon-face" of the little man who had watched him collect snails.

In 1979, Figuet and Ruchon indicated that this came from an investigation by Christian Hycnar and Eric Zurcher, from the Centre Ufologique de Nice, in July 1977.

Figuet and Ruchon noted that there had been 40 seconds between the passage of the UFO and the sight of the "pale face", that Mr. Cavallo was sure that the eyes were blue but that he could not explain how that color was visible in the night, that Mr. Cavallo thought he was confronted to a "madman," and that this may be the explanation.

Then, in the age of the Web, appeared the text, reworked in 2009 by Eric Zurcher, of the investigation he did with Christian Hycnar in 1976 on this case:

Zurcher notes that it is obviously only a "story" since the witness was heard more than twenty years after the facts, and although is can be classified as a CE3, it does not have the "gloss" of more famous cases, and that in addition, the possibility of a misinterpretation is not completely to exclude, as he will show.

It is work colleague of Christian, who knew the witness and had heard him report this story, that the contact with the witness was made.

The witness, "Mr. C", is described as a man who lived quietly at the bottom of a known small valley of Cagnes-sur-Mer, living in a kind of hut built of recovered material in an environment of a market-gardening ground where he cultivated all kinds of vegetables, living very happily there in spite of the somehow marginal side, "reflection and result of a life rich in events."

He had done a little bit of everything in his life and obviously had fun to do it, having even been an actor, second grade, saying "my face is known, huh?! But nobody knows my name!"

Zurcher confirms that his face evoked to them something already seen and even well-known, but they remembered neither the circumstances nor a name.

He is described as "a colorful character, with a facundity typical of the Provence. It was not only the accent, but also the expressions and faces he made when he told us many episodes of his life. In short, a somehow Pagnol-styled character [Marcel Pagnol, French writer who depicted the Provence and its colorful people], with relents of Blaise Cendrars [French writer], and who was immediately sympathetic to us. We had a total confidence in his sincerity."

The observation is dated May 1953 or 1954 - the witness did not remember the exact year very well - as he returned home, his work completed, towards midnight and a half, under a clear and luminous night. He was pushing his bicycle and walked along the Ziem avenue, very known today in Cagnes-sur-Mer, skirting hedges and undergrowth soaked of dew, collecting snails which he liked a lot, which suggests a probable full moon.

Suddenly, at approximately 100 meters of the intersection with the way of the val Fleuri, he noticed in front of him and according to his estimate at a short distance of 300 m, a shining cigar in the sky, of orange color, with blue spangles inside and around. This cigar moved on an axis going from the South to North in an absolute silence and close enough to the ground as he saw it on the eye-level whereas he was at the top of the final descent of the Ziem avenue. The display was really splendid, the more so as a blue luminous tail persisted in its wake.

The observation lasted some 20 seconds and the witness never managed to determine a speed.

The witness was disconcerted and remained petrified a few moments, vaguely anxious, and finally decided to leave the place, giving up his profitable harvest. He then had the vague feeling he was not alone, and he looked around him, to finally see a face at the top of a hedge, a strange figure of a great paleness with an entirely bald cranium, who looked at him with large, friendly, and blue eyes. These blue eyes were the characteristic which he remembered best. He had a kind of happy smile, lips extremely thin and his body invisible, hidden by the hedge.

The investigators wonder "How, considering it was at night, was he sure of the color of the eyes? Because they shone he answered." The individual did not speak, did not move, did not express apparent hostility, the witness saying "This chap looked first of all idiotic, a nice doofus head!"

However, touched by the strangeness of the situation and not very reassured, he climbed on his bicycle and fled by descending at full speed the Ziem avenue. The next day, he when back to the place of the encounter and noted that the hedge made 90 cm in height. Two weeks later, he told about his nocturnal mishap to friends, and one of them said to him that the same night, at the same hour, from a different but nearby observation spot, he had seen at short distance the same luminous phenomenon. This reassured the witness and convinced him that he had not dreamed.

In 1976, he had still not forgotten this moonface and this beautiful expression of "village idiot" which had prevented him from finishing his snail gathering, and Henri Julien added with his usual humor that probably this "extraterrestrial" was unaware that in Provence, one eats snails with tomato sauce, with much garlic, "pébrette" and bits of lard.

It is then commented on that if the affair has a funny side, it is perhaps not so funny, that it is not the first time that "wanderers" busy picking mushroom, plants or snails in this case, are stopped in their activities by the irruption of the unfathomable, and that the portrait of the observed being also reminds of the small humanoids of Valensole.

It is added that one cannot however exclude here a misinterpretation explicable by the passage of a meteor, for the relation of the air phenomenon suggests this, and the coincidence of somebody squats behind the hedge, with a weird head, which can happen. Nothing is sure however, and the witness "now took with him what he experienced, that only this narrative preserves for the posterity. It is the magic of the words..."

Let me add that there is no wonder the investigators had the feeling to have already seen the witness: Pierre Cavallo, indeed a minor actor, had played in the middle of the 1960's the part of "Georges" in the very famous television serial "Belle et Sebastien", and played in 1975 in the movie "Les Grands Moyens".

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