Southern regions were the first hit on Sunday by the severe storms that were expected to move on up through the country, as the French braced for another assault from the weather, in the form of rain, hail and violent winds.

In the southeastern Rhone Alps region, a young man was killed when his boat overturned in a powerful gust of wind, emergency services said.

The 28-year-old was found dead, while two others who had been sailing with with him on lake Charavines managed to clamber ashore.

Emergency services answered hundreds of calls after the heavy rain and wind brought down trees, ripped tiles off roofs and caused flooding.

Across the south, tens of thousands of homes were without electricity, the national power company Electricite de France (EDF) said, while several train services were cut as a result of the storms.

In the southeastern Gard region, whipped by gusts of more than 130 kilometres per hour (80 miles per hour) for part of the day, a retirement home was evacuated after part of its roof was torn off.

Two firefighters on watch in the southern Alps were in shock after a bolt of lighting came crashing down right near where they were posted.

Meteo-France, the state weather forecasting agency, has issued its second-highest alert across the south and east, warning of gusts of high winds, heavy rain and lightning up to late Monday.

Motorists in those areas, and in Paris, were also warned that the winds could make driving dangerous.

In Larzac, in southwest France, authorities passed on the alert to 40,000 music fans attending an outdoor techno festival.

Residents in the affected areas were told to avoid walking in forests or on mountains, to secure items that might be swept away by the wind and to avoid using the telephone or other electronic gear.

The storms come on the heels of a two-week heatwave that receded Friday after causing up to an estimated 3,000 deaths, mostly of elderly people unable to cope with temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and more.

TERRA.WIRE