The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 5-Oct-54-Remiremont.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The very "skeptical" national newspaper Libération for October 6, 1954, reported, among other sightings, that on October 5, 1954, a hundred visitors to the Pomological Exhibition in Remiremont, in the Vosges, had "followed the movements of a cigar and a disc around the sun".
The newspaper added that people had been drawn in by a contest for "anomalies" with more than 100,000 francs in prizes, and that after searching for anomalies among the fair's stalls, they had naturally turned their gaze toward the sky.
Astrophysicist Evry Schatzman, as a member of the Communist Party and of the Rationalist Union, sometimes gave his opinion on current affairs in the columns of the French Communist Party newspaper, L'Humanité.
In a famous article, he reviewed the sightings of "flying saucers" in general, which he allotted half to imagined testimonies, and half to miscellaneous misinterpretations.
He was quoting a case explained as a sundog:
"On October 5, in Remiremont (Vosges), a hundred visitors of the exposition Pomologique [xposition related to apple trees culture] have followed the manoeuvers of a cigar and a disk around the sun: it was again an undersun and a halo!"
[Ref. lin1:] NEWSPAPER "LIBERATION":
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Yesterday brought us a fresh crop of "saucers" and other "unidentified flying objects" - or rather, sightings just as unverifiable as ever - along with further proof of the existence... of hoaxers. This time, it isn't a supposed witness guilty of contempt of court by digging tripod marks into the ground, but a mischievous maker of aerial devices who was issued a citation for a dangerous prank.
Sunday evening, around 9:30 p.m., two residents of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire (Pas-de-Calais) spotted a "flying pot" spinning in the sky, emitting a reddish glow and moving at high speed. At the same time, a "flying crescent" hovered in the sky over Liévin, near Béthune, then split into two parts—one rising higher, the other descending toward the ground between two haystacks.
Meanwhile, the Hennebelle family from Sailly (in the same district), who had also seen a luminous craft go dark and fall, rushed to the
Jacques DEROGY
Continued on page 6, Col. 5
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Continued from Page 1 - Col. 8
locations... only to find advertising leaflets and bits of wire. The rural guard immediately alerted the police commissioner of Beuvry-les-Béthune, who, after a brief investigation, questioned a retired miner, Mr. Victor Oliveira, 60 years old, a great fan of pranks and practical jokes.
"I'm very surprised anyone's taking notice of me," said the old fellow. "Everyone around here knows full well that I make balloons, and that I enjoy watching them rise, all lit up. Here, let me show you."
And the retiree began, in front of the police officers and journalists, to inflate an oval hot air balloon three meters in diameter, with a wrapping-paper envelope and a small receptacle at its base containing a tuft of tow soaked in a flammable liquid. He only had to light the tow for the craft to rise and disappear in a zigzag pattern, carried by the wind, surrounded by yellowish and orange hues. Under Mr. Oliveira's shed were numerous prototypes of varying sizes and shapes.
"I've launched more than a thousand of them like this," concluded the cheerful prankster. "But I regret that these days I can no longer find those multicolored tissue papers that once allowed me to make pretty little balloons for fairgrounds."
Of course, it's not Mr. Oliveira's balloons that are being spotted in every sky where "sightings" multiply. Yesterday, a hundred visitors to the Pomological Exhibition in Remiremont (Vosges) followed the movements of a cigar and a disc around the sun. It's true they were participating in a contest for "anomalies" with over 100,000 Francs in prizes, and after searching the fair's booths for anomalies, they naturally turned their eyes to the sky.
Saucers, barrels, cigars, crescents, and other household objects were also reported in eastern France, from Champigneulles to Besançon, and in places as scattered as Deauville, Aurec-sur-Loire (Haute-Loire), where a large headlight was seen crossing the sky from north to south; Epinac-les-Mines (Saône-et-Loire); Angoulême; Clermont-Ferrand; Nîmes; in the Ain, the Isère, and even in Paris. Yes, in Paris: Around 4:30 p.m., Mr. Pierre Allouis, a cardboard goods salesman, stopped at a red light at Porte Dorée, heard a shrill whistling and saw a craft rise vertically in a plume of smoke, while Mr. Gilbert Bacon and Mr. Paul Julien, house painters, "clearly" saw a flying wing shaped like a triangle with rounded edges.
All in all, an impressive stack of saucers.
So impressive, in fact, that two scientists—considered as such until recent years—German rocket and astronautics specialist Hermann Oberth and the vice-president of the Astronomical Association of Kenya, Duncan Flechter [sic, Fletcher], have now aligned themselves with science fiction authors. The former asserted, during a lecture in Hamburg, the existence of extraterrestrial flying saucers crewed by beings similar to humans but thousands of years ahead of our time, and proposed calling them "uranides" (why not, after all). The latter went even further, claiming that geographers from another world are observing the Earth in every detail in order to map it—exactly as we would before attempting to reach Venus, for example.
However, as A. Ananoff, founder of the International Astronautics Society and recipient of the Hermann Oberth Prize, stated last night, if these hypothetical visitors were truly so far ahead of us—and assuming evolution took the same course on another planet—they would have been on Earth long ago, especially since we ourselves will be able to send craft to the Moon before the end of this century.
"Fearing the possibility that these mysterious saucers might one day be revealed as Soviet in origin, the Americans would rather throw themselves into the arms of the Martians," he concluded with a smile.
[Ref. esn1:] EVRY SCHATZMAN:
French astrophysicist Evry Schatzman, as member of the Communist Party and of the "Union Rationnaliste", occasionally gave his opinion on subjects of topicality in the columns of the newspaper of the French Communist Party, "L'Humanité."
In a famous article, he comments "flying saucers" observations, which he allots for half to invented testimonys, and for the other half to the confusions caused by Venus, Jupiter, shooting stars, aurorae boreales, solar halos, sundogs and undersun, ball lightning, Saint-Elmo fires, mirages, and unusual reflections like those in cows' eyes at night.
He quotes as example of cases explained by a solar halo or undersun or sundog:
[explanations on cases other than in France in 1954]
On October 5, in Remiremont (Vosges), a hundred visitors of the exposition Pomologique [xposition related to apple trees culture] have followed the manoeuvers of a cigar and a disk around the sun: it was again an undersun and a halo!
[explanations on cases other than in France in 1954]
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 5 October 1954, in Remiremont, France, "Unidentified objects were sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. Two objects were observed."
The source is indicated as "Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073)".
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
19541005 | 05.10.1954 | Remiremont | France | NL |
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Insufficient information, but probable sundog.
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(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Remiremont, Vosges, halo, undersun, weather, maneuver, cigar, disk, multiple
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 31, 2004 | First published. |
1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 5, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Addition [uda1]. |
1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 16, 2017 | Addition [ubk1]. |
1.2 | Patrick Gross | June 26, 2025 | Addition [lin1]. In the Summary, addition of the information in [lin1]. |