I'm not French, but pretty well informed about French politics. Macron beat Le Pen by a huge margin. Le Pen is a nationalist who wants to withdraw from the European Union, crackdown on immigration, ban religious clothing in public. She has been trying to move her party, the National Front, into mainstream politics after years of it being dominated by her anti-Semitic, Nazi-sympathizing father, who is very well known in France.

Macron is a relative newcomer, politically. He was Finance Minister in a previous administration. He formed a new centrist political party, En Marche! which means "we go forward together!" He supports France's membership in the European Union and economic reforms to make strengthen the French economy (France has very progressive social-welfare policies compared to the US).

The traditional parties of power in France did not make it past the first round, with the candidate from the traditionally powerful conservative faction dragged down by charges of nepotism and embezzling. The candidate from the traditional left party got only 6% of the vote in the first round.

Many larger issues were projected onto this election. Among them: the future of the European Union (if France withdrew that might be the end of the Union in practical terms), the future of the nationalist right surge that brought Trump to power and the UK to exit the EU.