The article below was published in the daily newspaper La République de Seine-et-Marne, France, page 1, on October 26, 1954.
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A Strange Phenomenon Seen Over Boulevard Gambetta in Melun
Young women attending an adult class on Boulevard Gambetta in Melun saw, the other evening around 8:15 PM, in the night sky above the nearby buildings, a strange phenomenon whose exact nature they could not determine.
According to them, it was a very bright, yellow-orange, oval-shaped ball that rose very slowly above the rooftops and hovered for about ten minutes at what seemed to be a relatively low altitude.
Due to its size and brightness, it resembled the setting sun more than the moon, which, in fact, was in a different part of the sky at that moment.
The object soon disappeared at an extremely high speed. One young woman even claimed to have seen silhouettes inside the ball—but that is another story...
Hundreds of people from the regions of Bray-sur-Seine, Montigny, and Montereau witnessed, on the evening of October 16, a strange, yellowish craft flying at an altitude of 300 to 400 meters. It appeared to be about thirty meters long and roughly shaped like a large cigar.
Residents of several towns reported that the craft hovered for a short time before taking off at a staggering speed.
The object was also seen in Thomery, where a credible witness, Mr. André L..., a specialist in meteorological matters, was able to take some reference points above the horizon. He estimated the craft’s speed to be approximately 15,000 kilometers per hour—a speed, he stated, that defies imagination. "Several people were with me and saw it clearly," he declared. "It could only be a remotely controlled craft, not a weather balloon or an airplane."
Additionally, the other day, two industrialists from Melun traveling on the road to Meaux, near Rubelles, saw a strange luminous phenomenon.
Several times, a light source comparable to a car headlight appeared in the sky, moving up and down vertically.
Each occurrence of the phenomenon was accompanied by an illumination of the entire horizon. A few minutes later, the same phenomenon occurred several more times, this time moving horizontally.
