The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Courrier de Saône-et-Loire, France, page 8, on October 14, 1954.
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PARIS. -- The "flying saucers" continue their mysterious rounds. Reports of strange craft continue to come in from all directions.
It has been learned that the military governor of Metz has requested a detailed report on a curious incident that occurred at the Metz Fair.
Commander Cotel, an expert in ground-based anti-aircraft forces, reported witnessing a mysterious object in the sky over the city on Sunday. The object remained in the beam of a powerful army searchlight for three hours.
Commander Cotel was in charge of the radar station set up at the army's booth at the Metz commercial fair, which has just ended. The station operated a powerful spotlight that scanned the skies during the fair. About ten men were present when, on Sunday evening, the light beam suddenly stopped on a stationary globe in the sky, "twinkling," according to the commander, "like a Christmas tree ornament."
The beam was vertical. The "object" appeared to be at an altitude of 10,000 meters - or so the experts claimed. No panic ensued, it's worth noting.
Not wanting to believe it was a flying saucer, the team decided to clean the lenses and even replace the projector's carbons. When the light was turned back on, the object was still there.
Onlookers who had gathered around the projector also saw "the Christmas ornament globe." They observed it until about 11 p.m., when the light was finally switched off. And they were not the only ones - residents of the Sablon and Queuleu suburbs also reported seeing the phenomenon the next day.
The radar, however, had picked up nothing.
- Mr. Bon, a mathematics professor in Lisieux, spotted, in the early afternoon at Saint-Germain-de-Livet, 200 to 300 meters from the road above a wooded area, a silver disk with a diameter of 7 to 8 meters. The object suddenly rose silently into the sky, spinning rapidly.
After diving from an altitude of about 800 meters, it suddenly shot off horizontally at an incredible speed.
NEVERS. -- Two residents of Clamecy (Nièvre), Henri Gallois and Louis Vigneron, fairground vendors, reported seeing a cylindrical-shaped craft in a field near Corbigny.
They stated that when they approached within about fifty meters of the object, they felt an electric shock, their truck engine stalled, and the headlights went out. Once the object disappeared, the headlights came back on, but they had to restart the engine manually.
LYON. -- Dr. Durand, general councillor for the canton of Belleville-sur-Saône, and Mr. Bourjeois, a café owner in Saint-Georges-de-Renain, saw a flying saucer over La Chapelle-de-Brouilly.
Additionally, around 7:30 p.m., two athletes, Mr. Dubuis (a rugby second row with F.O.C.U.) and Mr. Coulon (a swimming champion), observed a fireball flying at low altitude toward Montgelas, which changed color several times.
