The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Est Républicain, France, on October 16, 1954.
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Paris. -- One could expect one moment on Thursday afternoon that one of these mysterious objects which furrow the sky of France and Navarre was going to give up its secret. Alas! It was not so, and the claims of the ones and others are so contradictory that one does not know any more who speaks seriously and who is joking.
Around 01:30 p.m., Thursday, the residents of Fountaine-de-Vaucluse were in agitation because of the maneuvers of a white disc slowly hovering above the city, and which was clearly distinguished with the binocular.
This white disc was surmounted by a segment of a sphere of the same color, and the lower circular edge carried, intermittently, two powerful fires, variable from the white to the purplished, passing by the red color.
The air base of Caritat (Vaucluse) was alerted at once and two jet fighters took off. A few moments later, they veered above Fountaine-de-Vaucluse.
It is here that testimonys do not agree any more: the residents stated "the two planes took altitude immediately and dove right on the disc which was still visible. But they could not reach it, for their speed was lower than the speed of the disc. Soon, planes and disc disappeared at the horizon."
This report is the topic of an official statement of the secretary of State to the Air who states: "the two pilots of the Orange [Orange-Caritat] air base who flew over Fontaine-de-Vaucluse at various altitudes on October 14 in the afternoon did not observe any unknown machine during their search.
"The two pilots are experienced officers and their report is bulletproof."
Then, who is to be believed?
The testimony of an inhabitant of Graulhet (the Tarn) also deserves a stop for the novelty it brings to the "saucers" file. This man, who is a craftsman, stated to have seen Wednesday evening, at high altitude, a silver-colored craft which he initially thought to be a jet plane.
But he soon saw, binoculars at the eyes, a large flexible disc which undulated on itself while moving at high speed.
At this point in time the machine seemed to explode in full flight. A silver-colored ball, from a diameter of one meter approximately, escaped from the mass and soon disappeared from sight, while the remainder of the machine fell in several pieces similar to cloths of various dimensions which hovered in the sky, and of which some clung to telegraph poles.
About fifteen people collected pieces of this material which appeared as silver-colored agglomerated threads that fell to pieces when touched.
Apart from these observations of some interest, the other statements by witnesses in good faith differ little from those told many times already.
Two people, close to Nîmes, saw in a field, at nightfall, a craft absolutely similar to a rugby ball and appearing to rest on crutches.
The strange apparatus raised in the airs while emitting luminous rays which soon formed a screen of orange colour.
An engineer from Meknès, who went to Port-Lyautey by car, stated to have been stopped Thursday afternoon on the road, in the forest of Mamora, by a man covered of a shining outfit.
This man, who measured 1 m 20 approximately, then moved to the right of the road. Hardly had he taken seat inside that the craft flew away and disappeared at high speed.
A resident of Bourg-de-Méral (the Mayenne) saw a transparent machine which released a dazzling gleam on a radius of two hundred meters at ground level. Inside the craft a black shape was distinguished.
The disc remained like this dor ten minutes, reddened and disappeared towards the north. The observer went then to the place where the object had been posed. There was, he claims, a kind of shining cloud which fell slowly on the ground. Arrived home, it realized that his clothes were covered with a matter, a bit sticky, like parafinne.
People in Savoy, balanced people if there ever were, were not fooled by the machine which flew over their mountains Thursday. It had too much the shape of a sounding-balloon for not being one. And to see a parachute descending to which scientific devices hung did not surprize them more. The sounding-balloon continued its travel towards Gap where, today undoubtedly, theere will be a report of a mysterious machine which... etc, etc...
