Francois Hollande: Paris

France Dept: PARIS - Neck-and-neck in the polls just one week before the election, France's leading presidential candidates rallied tens of thousands to separate events Sunday to outline two very different visions of the future, according to Winnipeg Free Press. On the edges of Paris' working-class east, Socialist contender Francois Hollande told supporters that France needed nothing short of a top-to-bottom change. In a dig at Sarkozy, who has been seen as too close to the rich and too fond of free-market economics, Hollande promised to be a president "stronger than the markets, stronger than finance." French Socialist Party candidate for the presidential elections Francois Hollande delivers a speech during a campaign meeting in Vincennes, outside Paris, Sunday, April 15, 2012. The first round of the election will take place on April 22, followed by a second round on May 6, 2012. AP Photo/Francois Mori On the iconic Place de la Concorde in the posh western side of Paris, President Nicolas Sarkozy appealed to his supporters' patriotism, invoking France's history and the names of past leaders like Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle. Painting a picture of a country that suffers without complaint, the conservative played up his own leadership experience as vital to confront an economic crisis and to maintain France's global status. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.