Turning our attention back to voter turnout, in Toulouse - France’s fourth biggest city - it already stood at close to 59% at 17:00. This is sharply higher than the 46% turnout two years ago.

There could be an even bigger surge later in the day because the city has a very young population. One in three residents in the centre is a student.

This city has firmly backed the far-left presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in past elections and many local MPs campaigning for re-election are from his party, France Unbowed.

However, the further out you travel from the city and its prosperous suburbs, the more the political landscape shifts.

Once a socialist stronghold, the countryside, in the vast region called Occitanie with a population of six million stretching from the Mediterranean to the Pyrenees mountains and the edge of the Massif Central mountainous region, has tilted increasingly to the far right.

Those voters in rural areas and smaller towns often say they have made the switch because of the cost of living crisis, soaring energy prices and fears of rising crime and the perceived failure of the judicial system to tackle the issue.