The two candidates for France's presidential runoff have cast their ballots and basked in adoring crowds outside their polling stations. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen went first, cheerily greeting election workers in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, in France's struggling former industrial heartland.

She emerged from the ballot booth beaming to drop it in a transparent box. Outside, she took selfies with supporters. Then came incumbent Emmanuel Macron, who shook dozens of hands and was handed a small child to hold up on his journey from his family home in the resort town of Le Touquet on the English Channel to his voting station. Inside, he greeted yet more people, posed for photographs with his wife Brigitte, and cast his ballot with a wink for the cameras.