The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Montagne, Clermont-Ferrand, France, on page 3, on September 1, 1967.
Note: this was the first published writing about the famous and controversial "Cussac CE3" report. Check my file on this case, it shows the differences between this first Press report and the report gathered by investigators later.
SAINT-FLOUR. - In recent days, the village of Cussac was in turmoil... and not without reason: Did the "Martians" land? This is the serious issue that the inhabitants of the village near Saint-Flour discuss, after the adventure, to surprising say the least, that occurred to two village children: François [X], 13 and a half years old, and his sister Anne-Marie, 9 years old.
The story they gave to their father, the mayor of Cussac, and repeated to the adjutant [X] acting commander of the gendarmerie company, and told our correspondent, can be summarized like this:
As they were keeping the cows one morning around 10:30, they suddenly saw four dwarfs, and, thinking they were little children, François called them: "Would you come play with us?" The four dwarves immediately fled behind a bush hedge.
It was then that Francis climbed on a wall to distinguish them. He saw a brilliant craft that blinded him sixty meters away.
The four dwarves appeared dressed in black overalls and wore hair on the face. They plunged headlong into this four meters wide and two meters high craft. Anne-Marie saw one of them get out, who seemed to have forgotten something. Then the craft rose quickly and disappeared into the sky.
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This story has been variously welcomed by those who heard it: the children's father, Adjutant [X] and the town resident. Mr [X], just in case, preferred to alert the police; it is certain that all these details are troubling: how could children who, needless to say, were ignorant about science fiction and flying saucers, could have invented this?
On the other hand, several neighbors were working in the fields close to where the "saucer" would have teken off.
They heard nothing, and found traces nowhere... But, the children say, the place "was trampled by the cows in the meantime."
So the question remains ... Was Cussac (Cantal) visited by travelers from another world? or did François and Anne-Marie tell themselves a nice fairy tale in the XXth century manner, in which the Martians, as we know, replace the goblins of the past?
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