Special report: France coast to coast

BBC News Online's Sheila Barter travelled across France to meet voters ahead of the presidential elections. Click on the headlines to read her reports on the mood and issues in each place - and her reflections on the trip.

Calais voters shrug off shorter week
Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin promised and delivered a 35-hour working week, but seems to have won himself little appreciation.

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Nanterre massacre becomes election issue
France was deeply shocked when a gunman man massacred eight councillors in a Paris suburb, and it soon became a political question.

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Evreux murder focuses crime debate
The murder of a young father has highlighted France's rising crime rate, especially as it happened in a picturesque town in Normandy.

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The Teflon president shrugs off sleaze
Jacques Chirac has been plagued by corruption and extravagance claims - including the latest, Applegate - but nothing has stuck.

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Election indifference in heart of France
In the genteel spa town of Vichy, the French presidential election is not one of life's most pressing issues.

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Nationalism in Bove's back yard
French farmer Jose Bove shot to international fame by wrecking a McDonalds in Millau - but there is no evidence there of France's famed anti-Americanism.

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Jobs shortage forces Narbonne exodus
Unemployment is the biggest single issue in the southern town of Narbonne, forcing the town's young to head hundreds of miles north in search of low-paid jobs.

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Perpignan at heart of the greying south
Retired people are flocking to southern France for the climate and lifestyle, but the country cannot sustain its current pension system without radical reform.

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Coast-to-coast through fields of apathy
The whole journey across France's changing landscape has revealed an electorate passionate about politics but utterly bored by the current election campaign.