A tale of two Frances colliding in battle to shape Europe's future

Rome

WILLY Guenet pulls on a cigarette outside the railway workers' canteen in northern France where he works as a cook and vents his frustration as a floating voter.

Over the years, Mr Guenet has tried Communists, Socialists and the traditional right, and none of them have managed to turn around his hometown of Tergnier in France's northern rustbelt. At 45, he's still stuck in a minimum-wage job and now he's ready to try Marine Le Pen.

"This town is dying," he says, looking out across the abandoned hangars of the t…