The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: SepOct-54-Gonfaron.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Patriote de Nice et du Sud-Est for October 3, 1954, published an article critical of "flying saucers." In doing so, the newspaper, published by the Communist Party, followed the party line on "flying saucers," which were deemed nonsense and wild imagination - all the more so because the "craze" originated with American capitalist imperialists.
In this article, the paper claimed that some women in Gonfaron, standing in the village square, reported having seen, in the sky, at medium altitude, a flying donkey.
The newspaper asserted: "In this region, one quite easily accepts the possibility of such a craft!"
[Ref. pdn1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PATRIOTE DE NICE ET DU SUD-EST":
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"Ah! This time, I saw it, the flying cigar!..."
These were the words with which Mme. Dubiton greeted her neighbor, Mr. Julien Bellon, who had come to visit her. He feigned surprise, but inwardly felt reassured, for he too had just seen a strange phenomenon in the sky over Vallauris that Monday evening, around 6 p.m. He hadn't said a word to anyone, fearing he'd be thought to have caught the contagious madness of flying saucers and other such contraptions that are currently disturbing the minds of many people.
The neighborhood started talking, and it turned out that four people had seen the strange phenomena. Opinions were compared, but each person had a different interpretation of what they had seen. One spoke of a flying cigar, another of a white trail like that left by a slug, another of a star-shaped object — or more precisely, a stain made by some liquid — and the last simply described... a jet plane. This was, in fact, confirmed by statements from airport personnel.
The testimonies of these well-meaning individuals, who kindly received us in Vallauris, are not the only ones. Reports are coming in from all over. For example, in Gonfaron, some women in the village square claimed to have seen, in the sky at medium altitude, a flying donkey. In this region, we're quite willing to accept the possibility of such a craft!
Unconsciously, everyone seems to be playing a version of "pigeon flies", except now it's "hat flies", "pot flies", "donkey flies" — and to that we add "saucer flies", "cigar flies". With imagination having no limits, it won't be long before other objects gain the power to freely cruise through our beautiful blue skies.
Perhaps one day soon we'll have the pleasure of seeing one of these contraptions land in Place Masséna! We'd be thrilled to interview its occupants — and in gratitude, maybe they'd make a little room for us inside their craft? But smoking cigars inside will be strictly forbidden.
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This story, built by intellectual dishonesty, attempts to make the reader believe in a recent sighting of a flying donkey in Gonfaron. By women, "as expected."
The reality is different: there is indeed a legend called "The Flying Donkey of Gonfaron," but it dates this "event" to... 1645!
The legend says that during preparations for a procession, a Gonfaron man refused to clean in front of his house, justifying himself by saying: "If Saint Quinis finds the path too dirty, he can just fly over it!"
Municipal workers then cleaned it themselves, and the procession went on without trouble.
Some time later, returning from the countryside on his donkey, the same man was descending Mount Carnaute to the north of Gonfaron toward the village. But his donkey, perhaps annoyed by horseflies or simply unbalanced by a misstep, suddenly sped up and left the path, supposedly "flying" over the ravine below, throwing off its rider, who fell into the ravine.
When the townspeople learned of the mishap, they mocked the villager climbing out of the ravine: "Serves you right, Saint Quinis punished you, your donkey flew!"
Since then, many legends claim that the donkeys of Gonfaron fly over the chapel of Saint Quinis in the early days of spring.
In Gonfaron, the Flying Donkey Festival has been celebrated ever since, in April. At the end of the day, a donkey made specially for the occasion is burned.
Example source: "Histoire Générale de la commune de Gonfaron des origines au XXème siècle", book by Louis Baudoin, 1976.
Below: postcard celebrating "the flying donkey of Gonfaron":
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(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Gonfaron, Var, donkey, flying, jounalistic 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 | May 4, 2025 | First published, [pdn1]. |
