Practicing French in Montauban

You know, the "Shopkeepers" recommendation isn't half-bad. You could start there. And while strolling, you are sure to see a mother or a grandmother pushing a small child in a pram. "Quelle bon Bebe!" (ha ha LOL, is that even French? ) "Il (he) or elle a deux ans, peut-etre?" And wherever there is coffee or ice cream there are people with time on their hands. Maybe there's a park or church with a cafe across the street.

log onto meetup.com and see if there are any groups in the area that you'd be interested in. Meetup is for people with a shared interest in some topic to get together

Thanks Shelley & Bill.

Chatting up people in a park seems like a good possibility.

I thought Meetup.com was a brilliant idea until I took a look at the offerings and saw that, although there were many in large cities, in the small town where I'm staying there is only one meetup scheduled, but it's not in one of my interest areas and more importantly it's not for one of the days I have free.

So, I expanded the search to Toulouse and, as I should have expected, all the meetups are in the evening, not during the day. I'm only free from around 9-5, having wifely "entertainment duty" in the evenings. Sorry I didn't specify times in the OP.

Other suggestions?

Entretemps, je sors tenter ma chance. 😊

Why don't you go over to the library (mediathèque) and talk to the librarians, read, see if they have any ideas for you. When people have problems, others like to help, so there you go--conversation.
Or you could ask at city hall.

Is there a bulletin board (either live or online) where you could offer an hour of English conversation in return for an hour of French conversation? This way, you both get something out of the deal.

I have to say that I did once hang out at a bar precisely and although I wasn't married at the time, I wasn't on the look out for a romantic partner, I just wanted to practice speaking, and it worked quite well! And of course in France this can be more "having a drink at a café table" (which is what I did) than "spending long hours downing numerous drinks belly up to the bar" which of course would NOT be advisable!! Of course it's just kind of hit or miss as to whether you end up with someone next to you who wants to talk and who you find easy enough to engage (of course if you WEREN'T looking for this, you'd find it easily!!).

A funny tale: once I was kind of on this same quest myself, so signed up for a massage, thinking I'd chat with the masseuse. Well of course it was supposed to be silent and restorative, and we didn't talk the whole time. Your hairdresser idea is MUCH better - -it's practically required to chat at the salon!

It turns out that there were a few francophones at the dinner/evening events I'm attending with my husband. One was nice enough not just to chat with me two evenings ago, but also came up to someone I was talking to last night and said: "She speaks French. Make her speak French!" 😊

During the day, on my own, I've had lots of little conversations with shop keepers and a masseuse (went for it anyway), but also two longer conversations. The first was with an older lady w/ a very small dog in a park. I think I could have kept her talking about her dog for an hour if I'd wanted too, but 10 minutes was enough for me. (The tiny dog's name was Barbar, BTW, so she had some sense of humor.) Then yesterday, I went birding out in the countryside around Montauban. I wasn't really planning on speaking that much French, but at one point a farmer walked over to where I was. Apparently, he wanted to know what I was staring at in his field through my binoculars. I didn't know how to say "Stonechat" in French, but I described what I was doing and he told me about his farm (with a thick regional accent). All this reminds me of another way to get conversation practice -- just act strange enough in public and sooner or later someone will ask you what you are doing, hopefully not a member of the police force.

It sounds like you are doing well now finding conversations in French. However, if you run out I will ditto Kim's opinion. I, too, am married, but I found bartenders and many people around them great sources of information and general chat. I usually just ordered a cup of tea or the like as I tend to go during off hours...later afternoon, early evening, etc. ... but not always. I think maybe they are intrigued that this silver haired female tourist is sitting at their bar so they chat...often about their travels to the US, etc. or what I should do while I'm there, but I don't ask about tourist places, etc.