The french are more and more concerned about safety issues: younger and younger people commit delictuous or criminal acts and it's certain the left hasn't handled the issue the way the french expected. Le Pen had appeared as a victim by claiming all over he didn't get the 500 signature he needed to be elligible; he just narrowly got them at the very end.
It's also true his campaign was much more discreet than in previous ones (so, people easily forget what he said and did, as Matt analyzed).
During the campaign, mr François Bayrou smacked a young boy who went to the minister's pocket to steal something; this helped him a lot inthe polls (but, ok, he was far behind anyway), nevertheless, that smack was THE image of the campaign.
But, I'd say it's Lionel Jospin who blew it completely.
What's going to happen is Chirac will most certainly (well, I hope) get re-elected, BUT (and it's a BIG BUT), there will be legislative elections (in a few weeks) and I'm not at all certain the conservatives will win them. There might be a left government, just as now, but with probably a guy like Dominique Strauss-Kahn as prime minister.

Raoul