The extreme weather has left about 2,800 homes across 10 villages without electricity, according to officials.
Authorities in the Aude department in south-west France cancelled the third stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race in the area after a hailstorm in the French Pyrenees forced riders to seek shelter.
Eyewitness footage from the region captured the swirling vortex of the tornado looming in the horizon above houses and trees.
Images from the small village of Pomas, which was the hardest hit, showed uprooted trees, damaged cars and rubble from destroyed homes.
Meanwhile there were flight delays and cancellations at airports in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and north of Paris to the north, said Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot.
On average, France experiences several dozen tornadoes per year, according to the country’s national weather service Météo-France.
It comes after Europe’s summer of unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires, with France’s south-west region among the worst affected with an area of 42,000 hectares burnt in one of the largest forest fires since World War Two.
