French presidential candidates marked a one-day truce yesterday on the eve of voting in a first-round poll to whittle the 10-strong field down to two frontrunners.

Parisians went about their business without being accosted by pamphleteers

French election rules outlaw both campaigning and opinion polling on the last day of the race, but Socialist challenger François Hollande went into the weekend favourite to oust right-wing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

The two 57-year-old political veterans are expected to win the two spots in the May 6 run-off, and polls suggest that the left-winger will comfortably win the battle to become one of the most powerful leaders in the world.

Parisians went about their business without being accosted by pamphleteers, while the campaigns’ websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds were left without updates and broadcasters had to find other subjects to interview.

But, while Sarkozy ate lunch with campaign staff in Paris, Hollande did risk angering the electoral commission with a limited walkabout in his electoral stronghold, the rural town of Tulle in the central Correze region. The Socialist insisted he was just visiting the market, as he would any weekend morning he was in town, but he did greet well-wishers.

“Rainy Saturday, happy Sunday,” a florist declared, amid an intense shower.

“I hope so. Are you preparing flowers for tomorrow?” Hollande replied.

“Now’s the time,” she replied. “Yes, now’s the time,” he smiled.

Voting in the first round began yesterday in France’s far-flung overseas territories – islands in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans – where 882,000 people enjoy full voting rights.

Privately, Sarkozy’s top supporters have begun to admit that if Sarkozy fails to regain the momentum and slip ahead of Hollande today, he will have too much ground left to make up before the May 6 showdown.