The second round of voting in France's local elections took place on Sunday, find the latest on the results here.
Big cities remained left/green
France's biggest cities tend to lean to the left and in recent years the Green party has made big strides in local politics at city level.
France's three biggest cities - Paris, Marseille and Lyon - were all predicted to have very tight races. In the end, however the left and/or green candidates held all three.
In Paris Emmanuel Grégoire - running on a platform of combined left/green parties excluding the hard-left La France Insoumise - saw off centre right challenger Rachida Dati with a comfortable 50 percent to 41 percent.
Marseille had been seen as too close to call in the second round race between incumbent Benoît Payan - also on a combined left/green ticket - and the far-right challenger Franck Allisio. However the second round result did not end up being as close as predicted, with Payan winning by 54 percent to 40 percent.
In Lyon, early polling showed incumbent Green mayor Grégory Doucet trailing badly behind Jean-Michel Aulas, a local businessman who was running as an independent but with the support of the centre-right and centrists on a pro-car platform.
However a disastrous performance in a TV debate saw Aulas, 76, lose much of his early lead.
After a knife-edge vote - and a call for a recount - Doucet held the city 50.6 percent to 49.3 percent.
Most of France's bigger towns remained in left/green hands, but in Bordeaux, Green mayor Pierre Hurmic lost his seat to a Macronist challenger.
Disappointment for Le Pen's far right
Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National party traditionally does not do well in cities, drawing much of its strength from small towns and villages. It had hoped that 2026 would be the year this would change, and had strongly targeted several larger towns including Toulon, Nîmes and of course Marseille.
Taking France's second biggest city - Marseille - would have been a huge achievement for the party, which poured resources into the race.
In the event, however, it failed to take any large towns.
It continued its trend of doing tell in smaller towns and villages, however, taking towns including Menton and Orange in south-east France and Castres and Carcassone in the south-west, while holding Perpignan.
The party's Jordan Bardella said the elections represented their "best results ever".
There's no doubt, however, that failure in the cities once again will smart.
Alliances
Much attention had been focused on the alliances that parties made between the first and second rounds - especially whether the parties of the centre would decide to ally with the far right or the hard left.
In the event, however, alliances did not prove to be crucial factors in several key races.
National party leaders had largely left the decision up to local candidates, with the result that some candidates decided to make alliances while others didn't.
The centre left candidates in both Paris and Marseille declined to make alliances with the hard left La France Insoumise - and won anyway.
With some exceptions, the centre-right and centrists declined to enter into formal alliances with the far right.
The big exception was Nice, where the local MP Eric Ciotti - running on a combined centre-right/far-right ticket - unseated the incumbent centrist mayor Christian Estrosi.
However the overall picture was so complex and varied across the country that it's hard to draw many conclusions.
Mixed fortunes for ex prime ministers
Former prime minister Edouard Philippe held on to his role as mayor of Le Havre - his result is important because he is the likely centrist candidate in the 2027 presidential election and the one judged to have the best chance of beating the far right, at this early stage.
However he suffered a fright after polling before the first round suggested he might lose his seat in Le Havre - he had said he would withdraw his presidential bid if he lost in the city.
In the event, however, he was re-elected comfortably after a second round battle with Communist and far-right challengers.
However his fellow Macronist ex prime minister François Bayrou was not so lucky and lost in the race for mayor of Pau, a role he has held since 2014.
What does this all mean for 2027?
This had been the big question in advance - what could the local elections tell us about France's fractured political landscape and the key presidential election in 2027?
The answer - probably not much.
Le Pen's party failed to make the big breakthrough that it hoped for, but continued to poll well in small towns.
Meanwhile the left/green held the big cities, leading newly-elected Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire to declare: "Paris will be the heart of the resistance against this alliance of the right, which seeks to take away what we hold most precious and fragile: the simple joy of living together."
The Macronists had a poor night, confirming that despite his two presidential election victories, Emmanuel Macron has failed to embed his party as a real force at a local level.
In truth, however, local and national politics in France have long painted very different pictures and that is likely to be the case again in 2027.
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