The article below was published in the daily newspaper Nord-Matin, Nord - Pas-de-Calais, France, page 8, on October 7, 1954.
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Around 4 a.m. yesterday morning, M. Pierre Lucas, a baker in Loctudy (Finistère) who was busy fetching water from the bakery courtyard, suddenly saw a machine in the shape of a 2 m saucer overnight. 50 to 3 meters in diameter. He saw an individual about 1 m tall come out of it. 20 who approached him and tapped him on the shoulder, articulating unintelligible words. The worker-baker managed to keep his cool by going back to the bakery where the individual followed him.
In the light Mr. Lucas was able to stare at the visitor: he had an oval face, all covered with hair and eyes the size of a crow's egg. The young man called his boss but, before he had time to come down, the stranger had disappeared as well as the saucer of which no trace was found.
A Concarneau beer merchant stated that he saw in the sky two luminous discs in the shape of round tables extended of a kind of tail. One of the disks was stationary while the other was moving nearby. The two discs disappeared after ten minutes after launching a rocket.
Two saucers were seen on Tuesday around 6:45 p.m. near Clermont-Ferrand, the first, 10 kilometers from Beaumont. The witnesses declared that the object approached them and became less and less brilliant. When it was only 150 meters away, they felt a "curious feeling" and were frozen on the spot. At that time there was a smell of nitro-benzine. As soon as the craft moved away, the discomfort ceased and the "saucer" disappeared.
The other saucer was seen above the Chanturgue hill, near Clermont. It moved vertically and was bright white.
A saucer was also seen in Billom by a group of 30 people.
- Several residents of Saint-Brieuc saw on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, a flying saucer which took the shape of a cigar before disappearing. They were able to observe it for over an hour.
The same phenomenon was observed in Trégueux where a cyclist returned home frightened by what he had seen.
- Several people from Thouare-sur-Vie (Vendée) also saw in the sky a dozen luminous objects having an elongated shape and passing at a very high speed and at high altitude.
Last Monday, around 8:10 p.m. while he was maneuvering the American S8, doctor Leven, in the airlock of the Watier lock in Dunkirk, captain Emmanuel Dubois, 20-year-old, 34 rue Carnot in Mers-les-Bains saw a white glow that ran along the coast, heading from East to West.
Observing this phenomenon for several seconds, he suddenly thought of the flying saucers and called his crew to make them check out what he saw. But when the first sailor arrived, the glow had suddenly disappeared.
Yesterday around 10:15 a.m., while waiting for the bus, 3 residents of Cassel, MM. Guy Ver[?]ghe, 27, Grand-Place, Romain Scheerf, rue de Lille and Guy M[?] rue Constant Moncelay, saw a reddish disc in the shape of a saucer which moved a few hundred meters above their heads.
After observing the phenomenon for a good minute, they saw it suddenly disappear on the horizon.
In the evening of Sunday an orange "disc" moving at near ground level was seen and observed at length by several residents of Boves and Demuin near Amiens. The statements of these individuals, collected separately, are absolutely consistent. The "orange disc" followed almost at ground level, a west-east direction.
Another testimony confirms the presence of this saucer in the Picardy sky. It is a baker from Moreuil, this time, who reports it. Mr. and Mrs. Dedier, indeed returned from Moreuil, with their children Mr. and Mrs. Quenneben, when, around 9:15 p.m., between Foucaucourt and Estrées, they saw the luminous object.
Same description as that given by previous witnesses, same observations on the direction of travel.
But the most astonishing tale is that of a shopkeeper from Amiens, Mrs. Nelly Mansart, grocer, 8 rue de la Mari[]e who, Sunday returned from Hérissart. Mrs. Mansart was accompanied by neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Delaf[?]rée.
Motorists had just left Hérissart when they saw a bright ball in the sky which, when better observed, then appeared to them like a rim of a bright orange mushroom. The diameter was about 6 to 8 meters. The "mushroom" let escape from its upper part, flames turning from purple to greenish, while some kind of cables hung below.
Mrs. Mansart, who was driving the car, was frightened, all the more so since the "saucer" seemed to follow the progress of the car, standing at a distance of about 130 meters and flying at low speed.
When we crossed a village, Mrs. Mansart said, the craft bypassed it and reappeared at the exit, It followed us like this for ten kilometers approximately.
When I left Pierregot, I stopped. The saucer stopped and waited, turning in a spiral for three or four hundred meters. As I restarted, it followed us again.
It was only in Raineville, near Amiens, that the craft left us definitively, heading west to get lost in infinity at a prodigious speed."
You will agree that this is an impressive story. We must also add that of a butcher of Rue (Somme), Mr. Galland who with his wife and son, was returning from Berck by car. They too were followed, for a time, by a mysterious craft of elongated shape and orange in color.
The object was flying at low altitude at a speed not exceeding 30 per hour. It finally disappeared in the direction of St-Quentin-en-Tourmont, towards the sea.
Other people also observed the phenomenon, always at the same time, around 9 p.m., Sunday evening.
The discovery of generous distributions of (fake) saucers by a Beuvry retiree caused a stir and the police, like the gendarmerie, endeavored to seek yesterday the disturbances which could have been caused by the persistent joke of Mr. D'Oliveira.
How many people have mistaking the paper balloons, cleverly adjusted by the Portuguese, for mysterious spacecraft from Mars? We will probably never know.
It was possible that the numerous Sunday appearances throughout northern France were caused by the Beuvry resident. But no, we have to find another explanation for these. Because, that Sunday, Mr. D'Oliveira had not devoted to his favorite pastime. This point could be quickly verified. What could have troubled the brave Santennese?
Certainly, if one of these craft had struck against a haystack, it caused the risk of causing a fire. Mr. D'Oliveira protested moreover forcefully: he uses, as he says, asbestos, thus taking all precautions. And yet the hot air balloon landed at Sailly-Labourse was indeed starting to burn, three meters from a haystack by the way.
And that's why Mr. D'Oliveira will "benefit" from a fine. Could this be the end of his invention? An old law of May 31, 1924, rules the use of aircraft, establishing that they can only be launched into the sky with the authorization of the prefect, on the advice of the mayor.
And the legal requirements define that any object capable of rising in the air must be considered as an aircraft.
These are therefore 5,000 aircraft that Mr. D'Oliveira has delivered to the clouds!
Rest assured that he will not be a fined for all of them, he began his exploits before 1918, at a time when that law did not exist. And there is prescription for crimes prior to 1931.
This being stated very seriously, of course.
