PARIS — After months of improbable twists in its campaign to pick a president, France hurtled toward a choice Sunday between a far-right firebrand who wants to deconstruct modern Europe and a centrist political neophyte who has promised to revive it.
Under clouds and a cool spring rain across much of the country, voters from the chic neighborhoods of Paris to the struggling postindustrial towns of the French countryside made their way to polling stations for an election in which turnout is expected to top 75 percent.
