not national, Jane, definitely local - all the equipment in our shop is electronic and when there is a power cut it's chaos - no française des jeux (loto/euromillions/parions sport/scratchcards) the till isn't so bad as it has half an hour autonomy for such events, but it's chaos all the same. Fortunateley it's only happened a couple or three times of times in the last year and a half. I'm not far from Raymond (shop and home) but nothing here ;-)
Like Brian we can have days when we get these very annoying mini power cuts, we live in Southern Burgundy, so I can only assume that it is national.
It nearly always happens when I have an important meal to cook as well!
We have it almost daily in winter, sometimes several cuts of a couple of seconds, occasionally minutes and less often hours. EDF have made their excuses. We are the last people on this line. However, the last people on another branch do not have the same, but EDF simply will not answer why. It is a stupid thing as well because a couple of minutes ago we have their closest maintenance depot yet they are incapable of getting here the same day when it is off for hours. I have a respirator at night, my doctor has written me a letter explaining for them but do anything about it... They are now one of the biggest power suppliers in the world so do they care a fig? It appears not.
It's obviously local to the cordais as we had no powercuts in the shop in Carmaux or at home in Mirandol-Bourgnounac yesterday ;-)
Try a phone call to EDF in Albi and ask why ;-)