The article below was published in the daily newspaper Nord-Matin, Nord - Pas-de-Calais, France, page 12, on October 17, 1954.
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Mysterious craft continue to haunt the sky of France, The testimonies accumulate, coming every day, bringing some new details, either on the saucers, or on the flying cigars.
In Le Puy, a bright object was observed between 5:50 p.m. and 6:35 p.m. by the Chadrac weather station. The craft appeared like a straight olive with a sort of black antenna at the top. The station chief said he thought he was in the presence of the planet Jupiter, but the sudden disappearance of the object showed that he had made a mistake. The same phenomenon was seen by the meteorological center of Rueyres (Cantal). We can compare these testimonies to that of thousands of residents of Tulle who at around 3:30 p.m., saw in the sky, in a South-South-East direction, a big bright and motionless dot. It appeared transparent and had the shape of a cylinder whose two ends were conical.
Above Cannes, several people observed a luminous apparatus of yellow color with a green tail. But the most interesting testimony was brought by an employee of the municipal recipe of Antibes, Mr. Casella, living in Bio [sic] who, returning home in the evening, found himself "nose to nose with a huge mechanical machine measuring 7 to 8 meters in diameters [sic] posed in the middle of the road". The witness who was on a bicycle approached the craft until almost touching it, but then it rose vertically and disappeared in the sky with a slight hissing sound.
In the Provence sky, in Venergues, several grape pickers have seen a craft elongated like a cigar, said one of them, and white and blue, said a second. A third picker said the rocket appeared to be emitting luminous rays.
Many mysterious craft were also seen in the sky of Italy. One of these machines landed near Rovigo, in the Po Di Gnocca area, where several people observed it. The craft of circular shape after having slowly hovered, landed on the ground without noise, after a few minutes of immobility, it resumed vertically its silent flight, but at the place where it took off, there is now a fairly deep crater six meters in diameter. Six poplars that stood nearby were also charred. Authorities will travel to the place to verify the authenticity of the witnesses' accounts.
In the Modane region, a trader saw an incandescent "flying cigar" flying over the countryside at an altitude of around two hundred meters. After a short stop, the craft reportedly headed to the northwest. This observation was confirmed by other witnesses.
The Mont Ventoux observatory reports that since yesterday morning 7:30 a.m., East-North-East, in the direction of Orange, an unknown object hovers in the sky.
This object of ovoid shape has two superimposed cones connected by a kind of antenna.
A resident of Pont-à-Marcq, who wishes to remain anonymous, told our reporter:
"Thursday evening at 10.45 p.m., I saw, in a westerly direction, going horizontally towards a very bright star, a luminous object the size of an egg moving quickly and fading at the very moment when I recorded, in the vertical direction, a trail drawing on pink by describing several curves; I do not believe in flying saucers coming from another planet, but from what I saw at such a high height, I am convinced that somewhere on our globe, tests of launching of long-range rockets are under way."
Friday evening around 9 p.m. Mr. Paul Caulier, living in Hirson, was coming to visit his parents on rue F. Boussus in Wignehies, when, arriving near Quatre Bras, road from La Capelle to Hirson, a crowd made him decide to get out of the car. Several people were watching the move of a flying saucer which was visible at a distance estimated at approximately 800 m. of height. This saucer appeared in the usual red-orange disc shape. Mr. Paul Caulier then headed for Wignehies where on the road from Fourmies to Wignehies, at the place called Le Pont Pagnier, he was still able to see this saucer in the sky.
