A shooting on Thursday night on the Champs-Elysees shopping boulevard in central Paris, in which one policeman was killed and two others were wounded, could bring campaigning to a sombre and abrupt end, however.
The euro and stocks on major markets recovered on Thursday as a market-friendly presidential candidate held the lead ahead of Sunday's first-round election in France, while the yen and U.S. Treasury debt prices weakened.
The race for the presidency features Francois Fillon, Emmanuel Macron, Benoit Hamon, Jean-Luc Melenchon, and Marine Le Pen.
France's internal intelligence agency had warned the main candidates of a threat, campaign officials said.
The Front National leader targeted security concerns as she addressed supporters in Marseille, the multi-ethnic city where two men were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of planning to attack a presidential candidate. Should Macron rank first or second in Sunday's poll, he is seen easily winning the runoff vote on May 7 after remaining candidates are eliminated.
French women were only afforded the right to vote and serve in public office in 1944, decades after women in Britain (1918), Germany (1918), and the United States (1920).
The months-long French campaign seemed to grow ever weirder and more uncertain as polling day approached.
A study has revealed that nearly one in four internet links shared by French users on social media in relation to the upcoming election constituted "fake news", much of which showed evidence of Russian influence.
Amber alert victim found, suspect arrested
The local sheriff's department says the terrain and lack of cell phone coverage presented a challenge in the arrest and rescue. A caretaker for the property, Griffin Barry, said they told him they were from Colorado and had been through a house fire.
Le Pen has pressed hard her anti-immigration, anti-globalisation message as she seeks to mobilise voters.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Trump says he is not explicitly endorsing Le Pen.
Speaking on RTL radio, the liberal centrist Mr Macron told French voters they should "not allow fear to be exploited" by terrorists.
By Friday morning, Fillon, Macron and Le Pen had all canceled campaign events.
Fillon, who says he is victim of a "dirty tricks" campaign, said in comments reported by Le Parisien newspaper that he would work to ensure France's institutions better protected the confidentiality of sensitive information.
The most likely next president of France is Emmanuel Macron, a social-democrat and former cabinet minister who has emerged from the crumbling Socialist Party. In the second roll polls if you take the aggregate, she's STILL 20-30pts behind Macron, and beats no one: not Melenchon, not Fillon, not even Hamon.
"This divorce, after 40 years of marriage, is inevitably going to be so painful that no one will want to feel it for themselves", Finland's Finance Minister Petteri Orpo said in an interview.
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