The 1954 French flap:

After the cigars and the saucers...

The flying soup tureen makes its appearance

Limoges, October 7. -- A farmer of Chalaix (the Dordogne), Mr. Gareau, claimed on his honor, to have seen a "flying soup tureen" come to land on his property. Mr. Gareau stated that two perfectly normal men covered of khaki suits came out of it, shook hands with him and spoke a language unknown to him. Mr. Gareau, amazed, did not answer. The two men carressed his dog and went up in their apparatus which flew away without noise at a vertiginous pace. At the place indicated by Mr. Gareau, it was noted that the grass had been pressed.

A red sphere

A mason, residing on the Island of Ré, Mr. Simonetti, has stated to have seen a luminous sphere of approximately 12 meters in diameter, which scintillated at about fifty meters from the ground.

The sphere, he said, became red, turned blue and rose vertically very quickly.

Two inhabitants of the Island of Ré stated to have been pilot of the same phenomenon. Two Parisian on holiday in the community of Mouchamp, Mr. and Mrs. Laroche, claimed to have seen, at the fall of night, an incandescent sphere.

Blinded by a beam of light

Mrs. Thérèse Fourneret, 23 years old, living in Poncey-sur-Lignon (Côte d'Or) saw Monday evening, a machine come to land in the meadow not far from her residence. She stated that, frightened, she had taken refuge at neighbors'. The gendarmerie noted very clear traces on the ground at the indicated place. Turfs had been torn off and projected in a radius of 4 meters.

Mr. Landrin, employee with the Waters in Duclair (the Seine Inférieure) who was wandering in company of his wife, was blinded by a beam of light. When he reopened the eyes, he said, he saw a ball which disappeared a few minutes later.

Finally, saucers, flying cigars, crowns and all other objects were seen in St Etienne, in several villages of the Eure et Loir, in Heyrieux (the Isère), Dieulanvallon (the Côtes du Nord), Ajot (the Calvados) and in Biarritz.

RAIN OF FLYING SAUCERS IN FRANCE

Testimonys on the flying saucers seem to become increasingly precise. Various people in the same area announce the same phenomenon and one can say that one has assisted for a few days to a true rain of flying saucers, cigars or discs on the entire France. A farmer of Chaleix (Dordogne) Mr. Garreau affirmed on his honor to have seen a flying soup tureen land in his property. Mr. Garreau declared that two perfectly normal men covered of kaki suit descended, shook hands with him and spoke a language unknown to him. Amazed, Mr. Garreau did not answer, the two men caressed his dog and went up in their apparatus which flew away without noise at a vertiginous pace. A luminous sphere 12 meters in diameter was seen in the Island of Ré by a mason, Mr. Simonetin. The sphere, he said, became red after having hovered within 50 meters of the ground, it changed to blue and rose very quickly vertically. The craft was also observed by two Parisian on holiday. Mrs. Thérèse Fourmeret, 23 years, inhabitant of Poncey-sur-l'Ignon (Côte d'Or) saw Monday evening a craft land in a meadow not far from her residence. She declared that frightened, she had taken greeat care not to observe this phenomenon longer and had taken refuge at neighbors'. The gendarmerie noted very clear traces on the ground at the indicated place. Turfs had been torn off and projected in a radius of four meters.

In Duclair (Seine-Inférieure) Mr. Laudrin, employee of the water supplies who was walking with his wife, was dazzled by a ray of light, when he reopened the eyes, he saw a ball that disappeared a few minutes later.

A roadmender of Mertrud (Haute-Marne), Mr. André Narcy, claims to have approached within less than one hundred meters a flying saucer posed in a field close to Voillecomte. He saw near the machine a small being, high of approximately 1,20 meters who was dressed of a kind of cape covered with hairs. Mr. Narcy challenged the strange character who did not answer him and threw himself in his machine which flew away vertically. According to Mr. Narcy, the machine was of spherical shape, of a diameter of ten meters approximately. Under the sphere was a kind of spindle and the port-hole by which the being returned in the machine was just between the spindle and the body of the apparatus. At the start of the latter, a kind of flame came out of the spindle while a large vaporous movement occurred under the machine. On the spot he noted that the dew did not exist any more on some surface. The grass had a slightly milky colour and was crushed on a square of approximately three meters side. Moreover, twelve parallel traces resembling prints of round feet were distributed at a certain distance, letting think that the apparatus had landed with a succession of small sudden starts...

[...]

Must we go on?
Do we need to mention the furry being, bearing for it around the size a broad corset of orange color, seen close of a saucer by Mr. Narcy, in edge of the road of Wassy (Haute-Marne), October 5 with 7 a.m.. 15 of the morning?

Or also, the 96 centimeters man, carrying a broad leather belt, shoes and panties, which rose in the airs thanks to two boxes in the shape of pears, placed under each arm. This being was seen by Mr. Lacambre, forestry workman in Saint-Pardoux (the Lot), on Monday, October 4, at 8:10 a.m., and the witness has even determined from the footprints that the small being fitted shoesize 21 [Europe standard]...

What to think of the assertion of Mr. Garreau, who swears "on his honor" to have seen a "flying soup tureen" landed in his property, and two perfectly normal men get down of it, who shook hands with him and cuddled his dog before leaving as quickly as they came...

And this handworker of Lavoux (Vienna), Mr. Roger Barrault who, on Saturday October 9, at 7 p.m., was paralyzed by a luminous ray emanating from a "diver" high of 1 m. 50, fitted with boots, with shining eyes, and carrying a heavy moustache...

And the cigar posed in a clearing, in Diges in Yonne, near which Mrs. widows Gaffroy [sic, Geoffroy] saw a man, from the back, in combination and capped of a khaki bonnet...

And Mr. Jean Labonne, of Bergerac, who, on October 2, at 10 p.m., saw a metal mushroom in his garden. "Who's there?" he shouted when distinguishing a shade. "What do you want from me?" But the shade climbed in the mushroom which rose in the airs at an extraordinary speed.

Even in England which started to worry and almost become indignant that not the least saucer, not the least "cigar" or cigarillo, had made the honor of an appearance to the people which had won the battle of Trafalgar. This gap has been just been largely filled by the sensational revelations of an ornithologist, Mr. Cedric Allingham, who claims to have met, on February 18, in the north of Scotland, not a Martian, but a Venusian with whom he had a lengthy and difficult conversation!

This Venusian measured about 1 m 73, he short brown hair, and his skin seemed tanned. He was completely wrapped in a kind of combination which had the appearance of a armored coat. In his nose were two small tubes joined by a metallic wire... Mr. Allingham managed to touch the saucer whose metal was slightly warm, and he finally took the leave of Venusian, not without having offered him his pen, which the man carefully put in a pocket of his combination and after having taken on the run a photograph of the strange character. This rather fuzzy image is, it should be acknowledged, rather unrevealing. One sees the silhouette of a man seen from the back, walking slightly curved, and that, without a little imagination, could easily be matched with the silhouette of any earthman.

Lastly, with the latest news, it is a true avalanche of Martians that comes falling on our grounds.

In Pournoy La Chétive, in the Moselle, three children were roller skating, when a round machine, of 2.50 meters of diameter, lands close to them. A man left from there, holding in the hand a lit lamp which dazzled the children.

He was dressed of a black cassock "like that of our priest", and after having said some unintelligible words, he flew away in his saucer.

In the island of Oléron, for the first time, it was two Martian girls who put foot on the ground. It is Mr. Martin, a colonial teacher on holiday, who brings their description to us. They carried small boots and leather gloves, as well as brilliant helmets. They were extremely pretty and nicely agreed to sign an autograph to the teacher.

I would take a whole book to bring back all the cases in detail. But all these good people swear to god that they invent nothing. Their entourage echoes that. Him, to invent such a story? A family man known for his respectability... A boy who never drank any drop of alcohol in his life? Come on!

So what? Should it be concluded from this that they really saw strange beings, hairy, helmeted, in boots, speaking an incomprehensible language? Do we need to have faith to this story of mysterious green ray which paralyze human beings? Are their accounts, on the contrary, totally invented? Do they rest on a serious basis exaggerated thereafter?

Nothing, absolutely nothing in the current state of the collected information which was made available to the public allows to conclude in the sense of the authenticity. The investigations were led as if it were a question of "checking" the statements of the witnesses and not in the spirit to eliminate all the assumptions leading to plausible and relatively simple explanations. These assumptions are numerous, they go from the joke to the hallucination not to mention the optical illusion. To eliminate them, one would need extremely thorough police information, doubled, in all the cases, of a thorough psychological investigation.

Then only the facts would remain, logically unexplainable, which would constitute the true file on the Martians. One would then notice that this file is extremely thin, if not non-existent, and that in this business, there is much, far too much, literature.

190

Oct. 04, 1954 Chaleix (France).

A farmer, Mr. Garreau, saw an object the size of a carriage land in his field. Two men of normal height emerged through a sliding door. They wore khaki overalls and were of European type. They shook hands with the witness and said something like: "Paris? Nord?" (According to another version they spoke indistinct words.) They gave a pat on the back to Mr. Garreau's dog and took off at an amazing speed.

(37; Magonia) (Franc-Tireur, l’Aurore, Libération, 7 octobre ; France-Soir, Paris-Presse, 8 octobre 1954).

It is said to have been a misinterpretation: the landing of a NATO helicopter.

104.
Location. Chaleix France
Date: October 4 1954
Time: unknown

M Garreau, a farmer, saw a flying saucer land on his property. A sliding door opened and 2 normal men wearing khaki coveralls descended and shook Garreau's hand; they spoke to him in an unknown language, and petted his dog. Then they returned to their machine, which flew away at vertiginous speed.

Humcat 1954-68
Source: Humcat quoting newspaper source
Type: B