The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Aurore, Paris, France, page 11, on September 30, 1954.
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A doctor from Chambéry nevertheless gives a timed and detailed description of a strange apparition above Lake Bourget
DECIDEDLY, flying saucers are in vogue. Never have so many been reported as in recent days. And the most remarkable thing is that to the pranksters, the gullible, and the obsessed are now added witnesses who could be described as "trustworthy."
The effects of this visionary and extraterrestrial psychosis did not take long to appear: cases of nervous disorders [sic] began to be recorded among those spectators convinced they had glimpsed messengers from another planet.
Thus, last Monday, a resident of Valence (Drôme), Mrs. Lebœuf, gave the following account:
- I had gone to Chabeuil, to my in-laws' house. After lunch, I went to the cemetery to place flowers on the family vault and from there continued toward the woods of the castle, intending to look for mushrooms. It's a place I know perfectly well.
"It was about 2:30 p.m. I was picking blackberries in the hedge when my dog began to bark behind me. Thinking it was a scarecrow, I went toward the dog and then saw the "scarecrow" coming toward me: it was a being with a human face, but whose height did not exceed 1.10 m. It gave me the impression of a child wrapped in cellophane. I ran away screaming and threw myself into the hedge, where I hid.
"Then, from the cornfield, a flying saucer rose up. It left at an angle, making no more noise than a large spinning top. It was moving relatively slowly when, upon reaching the end of the field, it tilted into a vertical position and shot upward at dizzying speed."
Mrs. Lebœuf, following this shock, took to her bed with a fever of 39°C. She is still undergoing treatment.
Here is what happened on a freight train traveling Tuesday evening on the Nantes–Auray line.
As the train was moving slowly between Redon and Saint-Nicolas, the driver, Mr. Paroux, shouted to the engineer, Mr. Girard:
- Look there! What is that?
It was simply an elongated saucer, cigar-shaped, which seemed to rise above the nearby marshes and disappeared toward the west, leaving behind a bright violet glow. The phenomenon, according to the two men, lasted five to six seconds.
Mr. Paroux was struck down with shock and the engineer had to finish the work. Mr. Paroux has since taken to bed.
Other witnesses of "Martian" appearances have shown themselves to be less emotional.
In the ALPS, the director of a Parisian music hall claimed to have filmed a mysterious craft maneuvering at a height he estimated at 700 meters. Needless to say, he is awaiting the development of his film with impatience.
Near FEYZIN (Isère), a young man reported having seen in the countryside, not far from the ground, a craft "shaped like a dome from which a very bright light was shining." According to him, the object rose vertically, emitted a shower of sparks, and disappeared.
In the DEUX-SEVRES, at AUGE, residents say they observed a similar phenomenon. In Sainte-Pezenne, Mr. Picaud, a brewery director driving on the road to Fontenay-le-Comte, reported seeing a curious astral disk. This disk was of a brilliant yellow.
Much more troubling, because it comes from a scientifically trained person, is the statement made by Dr. Martinet, dermatologist of Chambéry.
- Last Sunday at 5:12 p.m., Dr. Martinet told us, as we were returning from the Col du Chat, I suddenly saw, directly above the Croix de Nivollet, at an altitude I estimate at about 2,000 meters, a dark aluminum-gray mass. Having passed the air base, I stopped my vehicle, and the drivers of three other cars following me did the same.
"It was exactly 5:14:30 when we began to follow the maneuvers of the saucer. At first I thought it was a waterspout, but the wind was blowing from the northwest and the craft was coming from the south. Thirty seconds later, as there were about fifteen of us observing the saucer, it descended like a falling leaf, then appeared clearly in the form of a concave dish with the convex side facing upward.
"At 5:16 p.m., when the craft was seen head-on, that is, in the form of a perfect disk, we were able to note that a lighter zone occupied its center and that dark patches surrounded it. Then the saucer appeared directly above the cable car station of Le Revard, descended slightly, then suddenly disappeared like lightning, shooting straight up. Depending on the angle from which we observed it, it changed color, going from very dark gray to light gray. It was exactly 5:18:40 when it vanished."
The phenomenon had lasted a little over four minutes, which made it possible to record the different stages of its evolution and to time them precisely.
Let us note that Dr. Martinet, a former artillery observer, was particularly qualified for such an observation, and given his reputation, his seriousness cannot be doubted.
A detailed report will be drawn up as soon as possible for the prefecture of Savoie.
