Flying Carrots & Little Divers: The French UFO Wave of 1954

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the autumn of 1954, France found itself gripped by a strange and unnerving spectacle. From quiet rural villages to bustling towns and cities, witnesses reported everything from flying discs, cigars and carrots, to little creatures in diving gear waddling beneath a glowing sphere. Newspapers buzzed with excitement as sightings unfolded night after night, spreading across the country like a raging epidemic. It was the first major group of UFO sightings outside of America, and by the end of the year, more than two thousand reports were made from people from all regions of the country, and all walks of life. Was it signs of an impending alien invasion, or all the outcome of a collective delusion? That was the question posed at the time, and it’s still one that’s never really been answered. SOURCES Michel, Aimé (1958) Flying Saucers and the Straight Line Mystery. S. G. Phillips Inc. NY, USA. Graeme Rendall (2024) The French UFO Wave of 1954. Independently Published. Gross, P. (2025). UFOS at close sight: the 1954 French flap sightings catalogue. Patrickgross.org. https://ufologie.patrickgross.org/1954/1954.html ------ For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at ⁠⁠⁠darkhistories.com ⁠⁠⁠ Support the show by visiting our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories⁠⁠⁠ The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: ⁠⁠⁠http://author.to/darkhistories⁠⁠⁠ Dark Histories merch is available here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3GChjk9⁠⁠⁠ Connect with us on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast⁠⁠⁠ Or find us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠http://twitter.com/darkhistories⁠⁠⁠ & Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/⁠⁠⁠ Or you can contact us directly via email at ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠ or join our Discord community: ⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf⁠⁠⁠ The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:31.5	history class that you feel like wasn't the whole truth? Better yet, what's something you didn't learn
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1:04.1	your podcasts. In the autumn of 1954, France found itself gripped by a strange and unnerving spectacle. From quiet rural villages
1:13.9	to bustling towns and cities, witnesses reported everything from flying discs, cigars and carrots
1:20.2	to little creatures in diving gear waddling beneath a glowing sphere. Newspapers buzzed with excitement
1:26.9	as sightings unfolded night after night
1:29.5	spreading across the country like a raging epidemic. It was the first major group of UFO sightings
1:35.4	outside of America and by the end of the year more than 2,000 reports were made from people
1:40.3	from all regions of the country and all walks of life. Was this signs of an impending alien
1:45.7	invasion or all the outcome of a collective delusion? That was the question that was posed at the time,
1:52.3	and it's still one that's never really been answered. This is Dark Histories, where the facts are worse
	...

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