With the second round of voting in the French presidential election just days away, we explore the latest twists and turns in the campaign trail with Andrew Smith, a professor of contemporary French history at Chichester University. He unpicks President Emmanuel Macron's last-gasp bid to convince supporters of defeated leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon to vote for him, if only to keep the far right out of the Élysée Palace. We also discuss Marine Le Pen's pledge to ban the Muslim hijab in public. Smith tells us it's an attempt to fire up her base – but does it risk alienating more moderate voters?

With less than a week to go before France's presidential run-off, French papers explain why the "republican front" against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is looking increasingly fragile, especially in the overseas departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe. We also take an in-depth look at Le Pen's foreign policy proposals. We finish with an Easter special on why chocolate eggs seem to taste so much better than chocolate bars.

The war in Ukraine may be keeping Emmanuel Macron off the campaign trail, but the benefit to the French president has been clear: for the first time, a poll over the weekend saw him getting more than 30 percent of votes in the first round. The conflict has given Macron an opportunity to demonstrate his leadership. Meanwhile, candidates from far-right Marine Le Pen to far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon have been stuck defending their past sympathies for Vladimir Putin and their calls to withdraw France from NATO. Andrew Smith, a senior lecturer in contemporary history and politics at the University of Chichester, tells us "it’s going to be a strange campaign".

After a close race against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidential election, becoming the country's youngest leader. In his unorthodox private life and short political career, Macron has battled conventions and broken with traditions.

Demonstrators at Paris' Place de la Bastille clash with police as the results of the first round in the French presidential election are announced.