The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: Mid-Oct-54-Somme-2.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The newspaper Le Courrier Picard, in their local issue of Montdidier, published on October 23, 1954:
SAUCER AND CUP...
Will saucer disease spread further and become a real contagion? You might think so since every day brings us its new craft.
The most recent is said to have landed in the heart of the village of L...-lès-L... - a small town, however, usually, peaceful and uneventful...
It was the evening. The moon was in full swing. A local craftsman returned happy and content. All day long, he had celebrated his patron, a most revered saint on the calendar. So he went, his heart in celebration, a bacchanal look on his lips.
Suddenly alert! In the very village spread a large plate of orange-colored light. "a saucer! A saucer!" the man cried instinctively.
On all sides one came running.
Alas! It was simply the pond of the country that the moon, with all its brightness, was positively igniting.
Everyone laughed, the confusion was so grotesque. Alone, our craftsman kept his conviction. A drunken man never gives up on his idea.
"I assure you that it is a saucer! and a real one!"
- Hey! well, go see, immediately said the local blacksmith, a not always convenient redhead.
And a flurry to send the saucers lover into the midst of the phosphorescent water...
For a cup, it was a cup, and well served, you know!
He swore, this time, that one would never get him again...
In the meantime everyone is talking about it and lo and behold, the newspaper is getting involved!
[Ref. cpd1:] NEWSPAPER "LE COURRIER PICARD":
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Will saucer disease spread further and become a real contagion? You might think so since every day brings us its new craft.
The most recent is said to have landed in the heart of the village of L...-lès-L... - a small town, however, usually, peaceful and uneventful...
It was the evening. The moon was in full swing. A local craftsman returned happy and content. All day long, he had celebrated his patron, a most revered saint on the calendar. So he went, his heart in celebration, a bacchanal look on his lips.
Suddenly alert! In the very village spread a large plate of orange-colored light. "a saucer! A saucer!" the man cried instinctively.
On all sides one came running.
Alas! It was simply the pond of the country that the moon, with all its brightness, was positively igniting.
Everyone laughed, the confusion was so grotesque. Alone, our craftsman kept his conviction. A drunken man never gives up on his idea.
"I assure you that it is a saucer! and a real one!"
- Hey! well, go see, immediately said the local blacksmith, a not always convenient redhead.
And a flurry to send the saucers lover into the midst of the phosphorescent water...
For a cup, it was a cup, and well served, you know!
He swore, this time, that one would never get him again...
In the meantime everyone is talking about it and lo and behold, the newspaper is getting involved!
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This is obviously to be considered as a "negative case", that is to say a case that the witnesses themselves, at least some of the witnesses, explained, and which therefore did not require the least ufological or official "investigation" to find a "solution".
It would therefore be an "example", intended to be educating, about a misinterpretation.
However I do not find the story credible at all.
The doubts begin with the tone of the article, the absence of any element allowing to identify a protagonist, and with the name of the place.
The newspaper hides the name of the town under "L...-lès-L...". But there is no municipality in the Somme department that would match this. There are towns with the names "...-lès-..." and "..-les-...", but no "L...-les-L..." nor "L...-lès-...".
Then, if I am willing to believe that a red moon reflecting in a pond could cause a misnterpretation, it is obvious that the witness victim of such a misnterprtation cannot be right at the dge of the said pond, he must be at a distance; but here, the "blacksmith" pushed the witness into the pond so that he realizes his mistake...
So I think quite probable that this is only the invention of a journalist from the local issue of Le Courrier Picard, "in need of material" as they said then; he took care to give a partial name to the commune which "rings true" but which does not correspond to any real commune, so that nobody would be offended and send a letter of protest to the newspaper.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Somme, pond, swamp, alcohol, drunk, negative case, misinterpretation, reflection, invention, journalistic invention
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 14, 2020 | First published. |
