The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Nouvelle République de Bordeaux et du Sud-Ouest, France, on October 6, 1954.
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From our special envoy André Euloge
All France speaks about it! From the Saintonge to the Normandy, from the marches of the East to the sweet Provence, "saucers", "cigars" and other mysterious flying machines took possession of the sky of our country. Is it a strange psychosis propagated in the manner of a striking epidemic which makes the majority of the witnesses "see" the observed phenomena - they are now thousands - imaginary machines while others are the credulous toys of shameless mystifiers?
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Here the film of the night of October 1. There, in the Louis-Belin street, in Bergerac, a mysterious machine appeared to MM. Defiz and Labonne. From left to right and from top to bottom, the attitudes of those who lived these moments.
1. On bicycle, Mr. Defiz returns from work: 10 P.M, , a gleam is visible in the sky.
2. It descends, taking the shape of a rocket.
3. It lands in Mr. Labonne's garden (marked with an arrow).
4. The machine lands on a strip of land, 3 meters out of 5 meters, (indicated by a circle).
5. In the morning, in edge of this piece of ground, mushrooms have grown.
6. Mr. Labonne, who is now in company of Mr. Defiz, has not recovered yet of his emotion.
7. As for Mr. Defiz, he remakes a drawing representing the silhouette of the machine.
8. Mr. Boyer and Mr. Marat, first of all skeptics, do not doubt the declarations of the two men anymore.
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ing on the railway. Two hours before this appearance, in the hamlet of Mauriéras [Sic, Mouriéras], community of Bugeat (the Corrèze), Mr. Mauzaud stated on his side to have been kissed by the space man.
It is still on a railway that this time close to Bergerac, a witness claims to have seen a mysterious "flying machine" on the ground.
Indeed, on October 1st, at about 10 p.m., Mr. Jean Defiz, aged 26, living on 28, street Louis-Belin, in Bergerac, assembler in central heating, regains his residence. On his bicycle, by a narrow dirt track which skirts the railway which goes from Bergerac to Agen. The night is black, thick, without a light at the horizon. And suddenly, just above his head, at high altitude, an intense gleam goes down at a vertiginous speed towards the ground.
At the time, now specifies Mr. Defiz, I believed that it was a shooting star, however an inordinately large one. I then observed more attentively and I noticed a machine having the shape of a rocket. On three occasions it was coloured of a greenish colour. I was wrong, recognizes Mr. Defiz, not to have stopped to follow more of its evolutions.
Getting off his bicycle, he then quickly crosses his garden and goes up to his room located on the first floor of the house of Mr. Marius Marot, of which he is the tenant. Still impressed by this luminous vision, he spontaneously goes towards the window, leans to attract the shutters towards him, and again, this time like outgoing from the ground, the machine still appears more fluorescent to him than previously. In same time an air drainage is formed, surrounds him and seems like wanting to grab him.
Amazed, his eyes fixing the machine, he sees under the half-spherical black cupola, three crutches which fold up slowly, while the apparatus rises more quickly in a whistle of air, always more quickly. And again there is the luminous trail which is lost at the end of a few seconds in the clouds.
Mr. Defiz fearing the sarcastic remarks and the mockeries did not tell around his adventure. Only at the following day at breakfast, before going to work, he evoked his vision for his owner Mr. Marot. The latter did not think at this point, that he was going to be a few hours later the witness of an almost identical and even more upsetting confidence.
Mr. Marot works with the tobacco warehouse of Bergerac.
In the morning of October 2, one of his companions, Mr. Jean Labonne, aged 63, retired from S.N.C.F. [state railway company], domiciled not far from Mr. Marot, at 18, street Louis-Belin, take hims as confidant.
- It was 22 hours approximately. I was at home alone, and returned to close my gate when, arriving at the entry of my garden which extends behind the house up to the railway, I saw, posed on a strip of land of 3 meters by 5 meters, a machine having the shape of a mushroom. If the cap were of sunk colour, the body builds apparently out of plexiglass, it was luminous. And then there in front of me, within 3 meters hardly, appearing like forbidding to me the alley of my garden, a shade.
"Who is there? I shouted. Who are you? What do you want from me?" I did not dare to take a step.
"At the sound of my voice, the black shape made a complete turn, slipped to the machine, and, in a few seconds, it rose towards the sky followed by a trail of light. I very clearly saw three crutches which folded up, under the cupola."
"But my astonishment therefore was not finished. At dawn, I woke up and returned in my garden close to the place where I had seen the apparatus. On the rich ground, I discovered three light prints; but what upset me more, is a flowering of black colour mushroms with long stems, unknown in the area, which had suddenly grown. I did not dare to touch, and besides, they dissipated like dew with the first rays of the sun."
Is it necessary to specify that this declaration of Mr. Labonne, who had as witness, after Mr. Marot, Mr. Leonce Boyer, foreman of the tobacco warehouse, and the workmen Mitsers Denis Rivière and Emile Marty, caused hilarity. These laughters, as involuntary as they were, caused the immediate silence of Mr. Labonne who refused thereafter to renew his account.
He was to speak about it only Monday October 4, during the morning with his neighbor Mr. Defiz whom Mr. Marot had informed of the vision of Mr. Labonne.
Testimonys of these two men make it possible to locate exactly the operation of this machine. It is, without doubt, Mr. Defiz who had to see it first whereas the apparatus was on the point of landing in the garden of Mr. Labonne.
During the few minutes which passed until Mr. Defiz gained its room, the machine appeared to Mr. Labonne. Then was the takeoff and the vertical ascencion, which caused this airflow that Mr. Defiz felt.
Currently, the companions of Mr. Labonne reconsidered their first impression. If it were indeed logical that the first declaration of M. Labonne made one smile, the serious character, the frankness, the balance of this man cast doubts in the minds. Mr. Boyer in particular, his chief, does not hide that his scepticism starts to be seriously shaken.
"A man like Mr. Labonne, whom I know since many years, cannot indulge in such pranks. It is not in his character."
Besides, it is enough to see Mr. Labonne, to detect his trouble, the concern which still invades his glances, to understand that he by no means makes a point of wanting to make admit a tale worthy of the apocalypse.
He does not dare to touch again with his finger this ground where he saw the machine landing. One feels he is the victim of a violent fear, which appears to intensify more each day.
As for Mr. Defiz, he is a young boy of sporting allure, with honest looks, direct, who speaks without hesitation, with precision and clarity.
"I served in the aviation, he says. I know what a jet airplane is, what a weather balloon or even a radio-controlled rocket are. But in the present case there cannot be any mistake. Flying saucer, flying cigar, wether they come from Mars or elsewhere, it does not matter. That of which I am positive, is that the machine was of a strange shape and that never in my life I had not had the occasion to see something similar."
A.E.
