The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Bien Public, Dijon, France, page 3, on November 4, 1954.
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Following our Wednesday article recounting the appearance of a strange luminous phenomenon in the sky over Dijon on Sunday at 7:25 p.m., several readers confirmed the account given to us by Mr. Louis Balland, residing on rue Balzac.
Mr. Roger Ducret, living on rue de la Sablière, writes the following:
"I was returning to Dijon by car on the road from Saint-Apollinaire, and my wife, who was with me, had the same vision. On the descent following the Billardon housing estate, after passing the current roadworks on the left side, we saw a bright, very vivid white light, which shifted to a steel blue before going out.
We saw no movement; the appearance was too quick and lasted only 2 or 3 seconds at most. This does not mean there was no movement — the phenomenon might have appeared to us at its end, after we had passed some obstacle.
As for its direction, the light appeared on our right, which would align fairly well with the direction of the Ruffey bridge relative to our route.
I would add that when we reached the fairground area, the streetlights came on; we thus witnessed the end of a power outage that we had not previously noticed.
The Maladière neighborhood was not the only one affected, since Place Darcy, Boulevard Sévigné, and La Cloche were also in darkness. (But not the train station area.)
As far as we’re concerned, it did not seem like a celestial phenomenon, but rather an electrical and terrestrial one."
Additionally, Mrs. Moser, living on rue Général-Fauconnet, provides the following information:
"Regarding your article "A strange phenomenon in the sky over Dijon," I can confirm that Mr. Louis Balland’s account should be taken into consideration. The outage occurred one second before the phenomenon appeared. The lights merged and transitioned in the following order: violet, red, yellow, and green, and spread over a wide area. I don't know the name of the neighborhood (not being from Dijon), but it was toward the road to Langres. Another person, Mr. K... G..., a contractor, saw the same 'light' in the area mentioned by Mr. Balland."
It seems that the reported phenomenon may be linked to the short circuit that occurred at the same time, cutting off electricity in part of the city for a few moments. This short circuit, which happened near the Café des Amandiers in Fontaine-les-Dijon, under a voltage of 15,000 volts, caused a blinding light comparable to a violent flash of lightning.
Furthermore, from Noiron-sur-Seine, we are told:
"Last Friday, around 4:45 a.m., three female workers from the Packaging Company in Mussy-sur-Seine (Aube) were waiting for the bus that takes them to work every day.
Suddenly, in the direction of the north, they saw a luminous craft, golden in color and somewhat oval in shape, roughly the size of the moon. The craft spun twice on itself while maintaining the same altitude, then continued on its path before disappearing on the horizon, giving the impression that it was falling."
