This article was published in the daily newspaper Le Méridional, France, pages 1 and 5, on october 5, 1954.
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claims Mr. Albert Sion, Hotel Bristol employee
I never saw a flying saucer and, as odd as that might appear, I knew of nobody who encountered one.
Since yesterday, all is changed. I still did not see a flying saucer, but Mr. Albert Sion, luckier - a quite debatable luck as we shall see -agreed to state to me: "I encountered a flying saucer, posed on the ground, in the wood of Cuges. "
Rather sensational, isn't it? They are legion, the residents of Marseilles who, scanning the sky, saw or believed to see the mysterious craft. But the landing of the said craft is recent;
J.P. SELIGMANN
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 UNDER THE HEADLINE
I ENCOUNTERED A SAUCER
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Continued from page 1
some were noted in the North and the East. Was the South going to be frustrated? No. These last days, fields of the Gard or the Drôme were used as saucerfields. Lastly, "descending", if you will, even more, one saucer chose the wood of Cuges for a stop. The geographical map is from now on complete.
This being said, I will not be ironical about the remarks of Mr. Albert Sion without claiming however (and due) their authenticity. Mr. Sion, night employee at the hotel Bristol, received me at his place, in Valbarelle, in the H.L.M. [low rent, state sponsored] dwelling that he occupies with his wife and her two children. Of a calm temperament, nonprone to hallucinations, having had in his life enough "hard times" to get a balanced temper, he did not believe in the flying saucers and even refused to attend "science fiction" movies. Until...
- I was testing my motor bike on the road of Toulon one week ago; it came out of the workshop of the mechanic. While returning towards Marseilles, ten kilometers approximately before Cuges, I engage on a path, on the right of the road. I rode in first gear, when the backfires of the motorbike were followed by a long whistling sound... and the engine stalled. Impossible to start it again. I lean to examine it, and while looking up, I see, within fifteen meters in front of me, resting on a small hill, a flying saucer.
"It was approximately eight meters in diameter, one meter seventy in height. Of rust color, it was made of two elements of unequal size, the top one being broader than the bottom one. Exactly like two saucers joined by their edges. But the junction of the two elements formed a projection of a few centimetres height. On this one, a shady area makes me think that loopholes were spared in the hull. The whole was topped by a cupola of an appearance identical to the body of the saucer, a half-opened cupola but which was closed back like a plane's "cockpit," without any noise.
"I was not afraid. I was on duty, during the war, on a troop carrier.I was sunk once and bombed several times. I wanted to advance towards the saucer.
"I took two steps. The third was impossible for me. It seemed that a mass weighed on me and paralysed me. I fell sitted.
"Then, I saw the saucer rise slowly, vertically. The higher element showed a very gentle rotational clockwise movement. No "landing gear": the saucer rested directly on the rocky ground of small hill. It immobilized at forty meters of altitude, marked a pause and disappeared in thirty seconds from my field of vision, while rising in an angle of 45 degrees.
"I had not heard the least noise, nor seen a smoke or any ray. However, by taking height, the saucer seemed clearer, more scintillating that on the ground.
"I was nevertheless confused. While standing up, I felt my legs were numb, I stumbled twice and hurt an ankle. The motorbike was reluctant before starting. It worked, before, in a perfect manner. The mechanic to which I carried it again, returned it to me without finding anything abnormal there; however it did not recover its correct functionning again. I had a wristwatch which, for ten years, had never "stalled." It stopped, at the same time as my motorbike, at seven hours minus ten. I gave it to repair.
The event had proceeded within four or five minutes. It was necessary that I gained my workplace, and, I acknowledge that, not being more reassured, I fled without asking for more. I tried, this morning, to find the path but in vain.
"But I am not the same man anymore. The saucer made me as nervous as I was calm before. I used to sleep like a log; now I suffer from insomnia. At work, my colleagues think I am very changed; I ended up telling them my history which left them very skeptical... as my wife is, besides. To me there is no doubt. I report only what I saw, and I am ready to take an oath on that."
