The results are in...

With the decibel level rising unusually during my Sunday evening stroll in Paris, the French cheered on the election results. Drivers honked and waved flags as they drove past and the cops cars were out in full force. Several of my French contacts had invitations to friends' apartments to collectively ring in the presidential election, something I've never really heard young Americans do. The culture surrounding elections is a bit different here: for one, your colleagues will probably never explicitly state for whom they voted, and while you may have a fair idea as to their political leanings, voting seems to be more confidential here. Secondly, exit poll results are not released throughout election day as they are in the US. (It's actually illegal to do so here in France.) This makes the excitement of the day that much more intense when the evening results are finally announced.

For those not in the loop, round two of the French presidential elections were held today between the top two contestants from round one, held exactly two weeks earlier. The two left standing were right-wing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and socialist candidate François Hollande.

Plenty of magazines chipped in their two cents on this high-profile election. I loved the play on this work, the original of which hangs in Paris in the Musée d'Orsay.

This magazine considered the four most high-profile candidates going into the first round of the French presidential elections, playing with each candidate's professional path leading to their position as a party leader. (Mélenchon's face is actually superimposed on a classic image of my very own Louis Pasteur of the Institut Pasteur, where I'm doing my thesis.)

Off to the polls: Voters walk in and out of a local bureau de vote or polling station at an elementary school next door to the Pasteur Institute in the 15th Arrondissement

The last two left standing: today Sarkozy and Hollande faced off in round two of the French presidential elections

Advertizing campaigns even cashed in on election season: this chocolate company encouraged you to vote for their chocolates, le candidat du plaisir: the candidate for pleasure. Ohh là là.

With much cheering and flooding of the streets around the Bastille (on the opposite side of the city from where I spent my evening), the French welcomed the election of Hollande, the first left-wing president since 1995, a man promising anti-austerity reform. Given the current state of the economy, I wonder exactly how these lofty, appealing promises can realistically be kept, but I don't follow French politics enough to give any valuable opinion on the matter. At least the locals seem to be in good spirit tonight. And who doesn't enjoy a good excuse for a party?