The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 3-Oct-54-La-Teste-de-Buch.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Journal de Biarritz et de la Côte Basque for October 6, 1954 reported that in La Teste, observations were made, said to be similar to those in Bordeaux, namely a "luminous cigar or fountain pen."
In a general catalog of sighting reports of the Gironde written by the Bordeaux section of the C.F.R.U., published in the ufology magazine Ouranos in the fourth quarter of 1973, it is said that according to the Sud-Ouest newspaper for October 6, 1954, the following observation occurred:
On October 3, 1954, at 9 p.m. in La Teste, seven residents saw a huge red ball at low altitude, leaving a greenish trail.
[Ref. jbz1:] NEWSPAPER "LE JOURNAL DE BIARRITZ":
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Paris. -- From various places, reports continue to come in of saucers, cigars, and diverse objects invading the skies of France and abroad.
Several Parisians declared they saw, yesterday afternoon, [fly]ing saucers moving across the sky of the capital. Passersby claimed to have seen one around 4:30 p.m., near the Porte-Dorée.
Mr. Jean Allary, near Villebois-Lavalette (Charente), saw very clearly, "in the light of his moped's headlamp, a sort of barrel about 1.80 m tall, studded with golden nails, swaying on the edge of the road." When Mr. Allary passed the mysterious craft, he turned around, at a distance of about ten meters, but saw nothing more.
Witnesses saw, the next day, at the very spot indicated by Mr. Allary, traces about seven meters long in the grass bordering the road.
A curious phenomenon has just been reported in the Dordogne.
During the night, on rue Louis-Belin in Bergerac, to Messrs. Defiz and Labonne appeared a mysterious craft streaking across the sky.
At 10 p.m., a glow was visible in the sky. It descended, taking the shape of a rocket. It landed in Mr. Labonne's garden. The craft came down on a strip of land 3 m by 5 m. In the morning, at the edge of this plot, about twenty mushrooms of an unknown species had sprouted. These mushrooms are said to have disappeared at the first light of the sun.
At Ambérac, in Charente, two municipal councilors of the village of Marais, Mr. Marcel Chevrier and Mr. Marius Laidet, saw a flying saucer above the locality.
Some Bordelais saw, on the Allée de Tourny, a luminous cigar or fountain pen. At Le Bouscat, at La Teste, similar observations were made.
Some residents of Dax saw fireballs of a somewhat unusual kind:
These objects, which were moving, had nothing in common with parachutes, balloons, planes, or other bodies that one sometimes makes out in the sky; curiously, they left no smoke and no trail. These phenomena were confirmed by several people.
[Ref. ous1:] "OURANOS" UFOLOGY MAGAZINE:
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October 3, 1954 9 p.m. La Teste BA V2
Witnesses: 7 residents of La Teste. Huge red ball at low altitude, leaving a greenish trail.
S.O. October 6, 54
[Ref. ufa1:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "UFOLOGIA":
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03 OCTOBER 1954 9:00 p.m. La Teste BA/V 2
Witnesses: 7 residents of La Teste. Huge red ball at low altitude and letting show a greenish trail.
(S.O. October 06, 1954)
Note: "BA" stands for "Low Altitude"; "V 2 " stands for "bad observation", a report for which it is difficult to rule out a misinterpretation.
[Ref. fru1:] MICHEL FIGUET AND JEAN-LOUIS RUCHON:
The two authors report that on October 3, 1954, at an unspecified time, in La Teste in the department of Gironde, seven witnesses observed a huge red ball leaving a greenish trail, at low altitude.
They indicate as source an article in the regional newspaper Sud-Ouest, October 6, 1954.
[Ref. gep1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "GEPO":
| 10/03/54 | (21) | La Teste (33) | 1076V1 | T09 |
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
3926: 1954/10/03 00:00 1 1:12:00 W 44:33:00 N 3331 WEU FRN GRN 6:9
LA TESTE,FR:7 OBS:HUGE RED BALL/LO ALT:LVS GREEN TRAIL:area=forest+gas field
Ref# 30 FIGEUT[sic]&RUCHON: OVNI: Le 1er Dossier Page No. 115: OIL & COAL
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that on October 3, 1954, at an unspecified time, in La Teste in the department of Gironde, seven witnesses observed a huge red ball leaving a greenish trail, at low altitude.
Luc Chastan indicates that the source is "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... par Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** éd. Alain Lefeuvre 1979".
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates: "3 October 1954: La Teste, France".
The source is indicated as "Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002."
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 28 October 1954 at 23:35 in La Teste, France, "Nocturnal lights were reported for a few seconds."
The source is indicated as Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073).
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Probable meteor.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
La Teste-de-Buch, La Teste, Gironde, multiple, ball, red, green, trail, low
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | May 1, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 9, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1], [uda1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | December 29, 2018 | Additions [ous1], [lhh1], Summary. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | April 22, 2022 | Addition [gep1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | June 1, 2022 | Addition [ufa1]. |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | August 24, 2025 | Addition [jbz1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [jbz1]. |
