The article below was published in the daily newspaper France-Soir, Paris, France, on February 18, 1974.
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NEVERS, Saturday.
The "flying saucers" file is thickening. The mystery too. The luminous devices, including cigars, cigarillos, discs, spheres, etc., appear before the (less and less surprised) eyes of witnesses, most of whom are trustworthy.
In the sky of the Nièvre, precisely over the small town of Decize, an enormous cigar has been seen several times since the beginning of the week.
The alert was given last Monday by an engineer, Mr. Cahour.
- For more than an hour a luminous cigar, 20 times bigger than a star, flew over my house, he told the Decize gendarmes, who, skeptical, gave little credence to this "revelation."
But the following Wednesday, a resident of a neighboring town 15 kilometers away, Veuville-les-Decize, also came to testify.
- A silent object surrounded by a luminous halo flew over my house this morning, Mrs. Bonnait swore.
The "thing"
Always the same time: between 6 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. The coincidence was nevertheless disturbing and the gendarmes unofficially decided to open an investigation. The next day, they were all in the gendarmerie courtyard before dawn, surrounding Adjutant Auroy.
- Here it is! suddenly shouted Madame Daumas, the wife of a gendarme.
Immediately, the four gendarmes took out their notebooks to record their observations: the "thing" had a pale yellow color. Very luminous, its flight was stationary; its shape was that of a cigar or a rugby ball when it rotated.
A telegram was sent to the public prosecutor and the gendarmerie management who requested a report to add to the UFO (unidentified flying objects) file.
The affair became known and, every morning, the majority of the 8,000 inhabitants of Decize wait, between 6 a.m. and 7:15 a.m., with every windows open.
Gilles de PREVAUX.
