The first round of France's presidential elections happened on Sunday, and more than a quarter of voters didn't vote.

That's a lot better than we do here in the U.S., but it's the lowest French turnout in decades.

The next and final election round, a head-to-head matchup between incumbent

Emmanuel Macron and challenger Marine Le Pen, is coming up on April 24th. And polls suggest that

a lot of people are just going to stay home again. I'm not sure if that means that they don't care

or that they're simply disgusted by the two options that they

have. Slate's staff writer Henry Grabar is in Paris covering the election. He says the remaining

two presidential candidates are leaving a lot of voters cold. President Macron seems like he's not

even trying all that hard to win hearts and minds. He didn't begin his re-election campaign until just a month ago, and he's held exactly one rally.

Henry went to it.

It was weird. It was really weird.

It was in a massive arena in the suburbs of Paris.

And in fact, the vibe was really that of a concert.

Indoor fireworks, right?

Like sparklers shooting up sparks.

There was a DJ with really loud music.

There was a brightly lit, hexagonical stage at the center.

I was quite far away. To me, Macron looked like a little speck marching around

there. But this was part of their strategy to make him look presidential. And so instead of having

him roam around the equivalent of the Iowa State Fair, shaking hands with people. They had him on stage in front of

20,000 people, screaming, chanting his name, asking for five more years. Meanwhile, challenger

Marine Le Pen has taken a different approach. On the grounds, day in, day out, more of what we

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