Did You Know Its illegal to let your UFO LAND OR TAKE OFF in France
in Châteauneuf-du-Pape in 1954. Mayor Lucien Jeune criminalized the ‘flying over, landing, or taking off of flying saucers’ in the famous winemaking town. Jeune passed the law after a man in northern France reported seeing aliens leaving a ‘cigar-shaped’ spacecraft. Jeune’s son, Elie, dismissed the law as a publicity stunt, but the town effused to overturn the ban in 2016.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape, located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeast France, is one of the most celebrated wine producing villages in all of France. It also has one of the wackiest wine laws in the world, one borne out of 1950s UFO hysteria.
That “spate of reports” that spread across France “with the speed of a space-cadet” quickly made their way hundreds of miles south to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Many of these reports were about objects that bore a cylindrical cigar-like appearance, rather than the typical saucer shape. Soon the French were in a panic about the threat of an encounter with a cigare volant, a “flying cigar.”
What happens when you combine proud, provincial winemakers with a penchant for passing laws and a bout of pre-Space Age UFO hysteria? The local mayor, Lucien Jeune, and the village council sprung into action — to protect their vines, of course. They quickly passed a municipal decree to keep aliens out of the local skies and the vineyards. Yes, overflights were even banned:
The village and its vineyards have an interesting history that dates all the way back to 1308. Châteauneuf-du-Pape translates to The Pope’s new castle — which is exactly what Pope Clement V had in 1309 when he moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, a city just down the road from Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The Popes of Avignon and their Court were actually fans of Burgundian wine, as the local stuff was pretty lousy 700 years ago.
They, did however, make some major improvements to the local viticulture, figuring they might be there for a while (only 67 years in the end). Fast forward a few centuries, and we see that the contributions the Popes of Avignon made resulted in wines of such increased quality that the region was the first to seek out and receive protected AOC status.
Art. 1
The overflight, landing and take-off of aircraft known as flying saucers or flying cigars of any nationality whatsoever are prohibited on the territory of the commune.
Here’s where the story takes a turn for the bizarre. In September of 1954, a railway worker in northern France named Marius Dewilde claimed that late one evening his dogs started to bark, so eventually he followed them outside to the train tracks (he lived near the local train station). What happened next is best summed up by a New York Times dispatch a few days after the incident:
PARIS: A spate of reports of extraterrestrial visitors to France, coming from regions where the wine is more noted for its strength than its vintage, spread yesterday [Sept. 14] with the speed of a space-cadet. Marius Dewilde, a metal worker who lives at Quarouble (Department of the Nord), made known yesterday that he had seen what seemed to be two Martian visitors at his garden gate last Friday night. They alighted from a cigar-like machine which came to rest on the railway just outside his domicile. M. Dewilde described the visitors as of small stature, clad in something resembling a deep-sea diver’s costume. They had the appearance of human beings, M. Dewilde continued, but when he approached them the machine in which they had arrived set forth with a green beam of light which paralyzed him. When he recovered his sensibilities the cigar was taking off and the two beings had disappeared. The authorities have since noted unusual marks on the cross ties of the railway as though they had been made by the tail skid of some flying machine.
Art 2
Any aircraft, known as a flying saucer or flying cigar that lands on the territory of the commune, will be immediately impounded.
Art 3
The rural guard and the private guard shall be responsible, each as far as he is concerned, for the execution of this order… ”
Still relevant…
Here are the 3 articles published on Thursday, October 28, 1954, by Lucien Jeune, mayor of Chateauneuf -du-Pape.
Was the Mayor of the time Lucien Jeune a “lluminated” i to take such a measure?
No, we answer to Chateauneuf! The mayor was a very serious man.
He probably took advantage of the period in the fifties when everyone saw flying saucers everywhere to carry out a large-scale communication operation.
According to his son, he would have had this idea during a congress with other mayors of France.
At the time, extraterrestrials were very fashionable and the same was obviously true of flying saucers.
Operation successful. His decree allowed the commune of Chateauneuf-du-Pape to be cited all over the world.
The following mayors could have removed it, but they chose to keep it out of respect for Lucien Jeune.