The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Figaro, Paris, France, page 2, on October 11, 1954.
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Reports of flying craft that have been appearing across France for the past month seem to be increasing in number.
It was a true squadron of saucers that flew over the Côte d'Azur.
On Friday, a hotel employee, Mr. Albert Grassi, 28, standing on the terrace of a hotel in La Colmane [sic], was drawn to an unusual sound. He then saw an orange disk making intricate patterns, ascending at a dizzying speed before veering toward Boreon.
Mr. Grassi called Mr. and Mrs. Chagnot, owners of the hotel, who arrived in time to see the mysterious phenomenon as it hovered over the La Balona and Fréna mountains.
On Saturday, Mr. Soulié, an employee at Electricité de France, saw at 8:15 p.m., above Boulevard Victor-Hugo in Nice, a disk that, he said, resembled the full moon and left a luminous trail behind it.
That same day, around 11 p.m., Mr. Béranger, commissioner of Saint-Laurent-du-Var, a general councilor, witnessed a similar phenomenon that left a red and green trail in the sky.
Mr. Vallicale, inspector of the mobile brigade, also saw at 11:15 p.m., in the sky over Nice, a luminous craft heading south at full speed.
Several residents of Calais saw yesterday, around 9:15 a.m., a bright craft moving in the sky.
Additionally, a motorist from Calais saw last night, above the road to Boulogne-sur-Mer, an unidentified craft that he believes was a flying saucer.
"It was 9:15 p.m.," the motorist recounted, "when, to my left, I noticed a glow coming from the fields, like that produced by a bicycle dynamo. Suddenly, the glow shot toward the road, in my direction, and a very large craft appeared. It was bluish, like the tinted blue windows used during the war. I braked sharply and turned off my headlights. The craft passed over the road. It was clearly a blue disk, with a dome above it that stood out distinctly. The craft moved silently. It flew over the road, turned, and sped toward Calais. I saw it disappear, and at that moment the original bluish glow was replaced by a white light, as it had appeared initially."
A laborer from Lavoux (Vienne), Mr. Roger Barrault, was riding his bicycle on Saturday around 7 p.m. when he was stopped by a double beam of light emanating from a strange being, a sort of "diver" about 1.5 meters tall, wearing heel-less boots, with very bright eyes and a prominent mustache. The diver walked along the road for a minute before disappearing into the nearby forest.
Near Uzerches (Corrèze), two young men, Messrs. Charles and Alphonse Beaujou, driving on the Eyburie road, saw around 11 p.m. a huge shining sphere. For fifteen minutes, the object moved across the sky, changing colors, before disappearing.
On Saturday afternoon, around 4 p.m., Mr. Jean Bertrand, a mechanic in Carcassonne, saw a metallic spherical craft flying at low altitude. The upper part of the sphere, made of transparent material, allowed him to distinguish two human-like forms inside.
Namur, October 10. -- A flying cigar was seen by the rural postman in a village near Huy, between Namur and Liège. The postman stated that the craft rose into the sky as he approached but that he was still able to clearly make out human-like silhouettes on board.
