Marion Maréchal-Le Pen is stuck. A flooded tunnel has paralysed western Paris, leaving the rising star of France’s far right marooned somewhere between her two-year-old daughter’s nursery and the French Parliament. Infrequent updates arrive by text. "Young people," sighs her powerful adviser Arnaud Stephan.

"They do not communicate in the same way as others" About 90 minutes behind schedule, Maréchal-Le Pen slides into her parliamentary office. Her blonde hair is swept into a ponytail and her short black dress shows off her coffee-eclair tan.

I do not think she looks especially pleased to meet me. Stephan, it transpires, has also registered this diffident entry. As he confides later, his boss is very shy as well as somewhat short-sighted.