I have seen some wild hail storms, but nothing like that one in France. In the 60's a week after my dad planted a new tree in the front yard (bigger than a sapling) we had a hail storm that destroyed that tree and a lot of the neighbor's roofs. In the 80's when I lived in southern New Mexico my co-worker and I were on the balcony facing the parking lot when a hail storm started. We both had just bought new cars, so we were watching to see how bad it was. A guy was coming towards the building and a hail hit him so hard it knocked him down. One of the appraisers was on his way out to do some work so he had a clip board. He ran with the clipboard over his head and helped the man get into the building.