The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Montagne, of Clermont-Ferrand, France, on October 19, 1954.
See the case file here.
SAINT-POURCAIN-SUR-SIOULE (Allier). -- Mr. Michard, president of the Syndicat d'Initiatives [Tourism Office] of Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule informs us:
On Saturday, October 16, at 20:27 p.m., I was waiting on platform number 3 of the Moulins Train Station.
As I watched the lights that are placed very high behind the station (west side), I suddenly saw in the sky, a circle or a red sphere, 18 to 20 cm in apparent diameter, that is, slightly less big as the moon, that was moving at a very high speed, in a direction which I will explain later.
Immediately, the thought came to me to scream "A saucer!", but the jokes on this matter are becoming more frequent, I said nothing not to look like a prankster among people around me that I did not know.
But at the sharpness of the phenomenon and the fact that the object rapidly diminished in size, I said loud enough: "But it is a saucer!" pointing at it with my arm.
Immediately, the people around me began to observe, but the object disappeared very quickly and only Mr. Fousse, of the equipment School of Fontainebleau, had the time to see it.
I did not communicate the information to the press, but several people saw a saucer in Creuzier-le-Vieux, one hour later, I think it is perhaps the same object and that communication can be used as confirmation.
The object I observed in Moulins must have been at a great distance, yet it seemed to move at a speed which one can say that it was 6 to 10 times that of a jet seen at about 2 km.
What makes me assume that it was more a sphere than a circle, is that at the beginning of my observation, when the object appeared the biggest (18 to 20 cm.) the color was not the same on the perimeter, almost vermilion, than in the center, brighter and more orange.
The object followed in the sky a straight line, rising slightly and certainly going away since it decreased rapidly and very gradually in size to disappear completely, until it did not look bigger than a walnut.
Its color, too, has gradually diminished in intensity from bright red to yellow ocher, and ultimately bright chrome yellow before disappearing.
My observation lasted from 8 to 10 seconds.
Following his presentation, Mr Michard, of Saint-Pourçain, specified to us:
"I accepted, without checking, the information by a person who was close to me in the Moulins Train Station, on the position and direction of the luminous object that I had seen on Saturday night, 08:27 p.m..
"In reality, it is East of the station that I saw the object and its true direction was that from the southwest to the northeast.
"I added that it produced no perceptible noise and left no luminous trail."