Local elections in France's 35,000 communes have taken place, but even as we're still picking over the confusing and contradictory results, the campaigning has already started for the next election - the biggie.
I am referring of course to the presidential election due to be held in the spring of 2027.
Presidential elections are always a big deal but France's fractured political landscape, deadlocked parliament and lame duck president means that attention shifted to this election from roughly 2024.
The local elections represented the last time French voters are scheduled to go to the polls before the presidential vote, so now that they are out of the way, we are full steam ahead for 2027.
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As a card-carrying nerd, I'm normally very excited about elections.
But as an immigrant in France, each new election brings with it a creeping sense of dread - how well will the far right do this time?
It's been a constant drum beat since I landed in France in 2019, and each election has brought with it gains for Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National party, although never (so far) the 'big win' that would have seen them take the presidency or control of the government.
In the 2022 presidential elections Le Pen herself made it to the second round, before being comfortably beaten by Emmanuel Macron.
Parliamentary elections later the same year saw her party take its largest number of seats ever, and end the centrists' overall majority in parliament.
2024 was the year of two elections - a strong showing by the far right in the European elections prompted Macron to call snap parliamentary elections. This proved to be a disastrous miscalculation, leading to a deadlocked parliament.
And the recent local elections saw Rassemblement National gain its largest ever number of local councillors.
But in all of those elections, RN did worse than had been predicted - this is a party that consistently under-performs compared to the polls.
The most striking example was in 2024 - after the first round of parliamentary elections RN was widely predicted to win a majority in parliament. What happened instead was the parties of the left and the centre came together to faire barrage to prevent the far right winning, and instead we ended with a leftist victory (albeit with a horribly divided and splintered parliament that has effectively shut down any decision making for the last two years).
Likewise on Sunday many people were bracing themselves for RN to take Marseille. In the event, however, the centre-left mayor of Marseille won fairly comfortably in the second round. Le Pen's RN were also predicted to win in the smaller cities of Toulon and Nîmes but also fell short.
READ ALSO: Latest: Results from 5 French towns targeted by Le Pen's far-right✎
But every time the emotional journey is the same - weeks of gradually increasing dread, followed by sweet relief, tempered by fear of what happens next.
Early polling for 2027 gives RN a commanding lead in both rounds, so that's another 13 months of gnawing anxiety.
Because even if the party doesn't win, even if it never wins, its strength in the polls - and constant headlines about its strength - affect how the parties in power think.
France's centrists and centre-right parties remain wedded to the theory that is so inexplicably popular around Europe - that if they just steal the far-right's policies on immigration, that will fend off the threat at election time.
So a far right that is strong - albeit not strong enough to win elections - means that life will get a little bit harder for foreigners in France, and over the last two years we've seen a steady drip feed of legislation to that purpose.
From tougher language rules to compulsory civics tests, it's generally getting harder (and more expensive) to get long-term residency or French citizenship.
READ ALSO: Residency permits to language tests - all the changes for foreigners in France in 2026✎
And that's a (nominally) centrist government - Rassemblement National itself has a whole host of treats up its sleeve, from a proposed ban on dual nationals working in certain jobs to barring family reunification.
Of course, there are many others who have much more to fear than I - refugees, foreign workers in precarious employment or irregular immigration situations.
Meanwhile people of colour, French or not, are already a target for discrimination and racial profiling in many aspects of daily life, a situation that is set to get worse as a growing far right influence normalises casual racism and the right to question whether someone is 'really' French.
I don't want to paint too bleak a picture here - millions of French people are deeply committed to upholding the ideals of the republic and doing all they can to resist the rise of the far right.
Joining a French demo always leaves me impressed and I'm constantly heartened at the kindness and patience that so many French people show to me and my imperfect French during daily life here.
I remember being deeply moved, back in 2024, by the number of people who took to the street to protest at the idea of cutting the EMA (health cover for undocumented migrants) - most countries don't have any kind of provision for people in this situation and the fact that France not only does, but that people were so furious about the idea of cutting it that they protested, touched me deeply. In the end, the government abandoned the idea.
However, if you look back at Germany or Italy in the 1920s and 30s, the fascist parties didn't sweep to power on an overwhelming wave of public support - they got there through deals done with the centre-right, while the left fought among itself. Sound familiar?
So already I feel the muffled drumbeat of dread as I wonder whether the land of liberté, égalité and fraternité will once again stand tall against the forces of hatred and intolerance come spring 2027.
It's going to be a long year.
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