Emmanuel Macron, the front-runner in Sunday's French presidential election, shares something with President Trump: a 24-year age gap with his wife. The difference is that Macron's wife is the older one.

That cliché-busting fact - a candidate young enough to be his wife's son, rather than old enough to be her father - is a little social “revenge” that delights many French women, including Martine Bergossi.

“Why can't we marry younger men? I date them all the time,” said Bergossi, the stylish owner of Alternatives, a secondhand-couture shop in Paris, who prefers to leave her exact age to the imagination.

“It's normal to see men with younger women,” she said. “So it's rather great to see the opposite.”

France is famous for its laissez-faire attitude toward sex and love, yet the May-December romance between Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron has added a little ooh-la-la to a presidential campaign that is otherwise a deadly serious matter.

Macron, a pro-European Union centrist, is facing off against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, a blunt populist who rails darkly against immigration and threatens to yank France out of the European Union and NATO.

Macron, a former investment banker, is 39, and his wife just turned 64.

Macron was only 15 when he met Brigitte Trogneux, a married teacher at his high school in northern France who had three children. Macron's parents sent him to Paris to put distance between the teacher who ran the drama club and their precocious son, but their bond lasted, she divorced, and 10 years ago they were married.

Most of the French women interviewed said a politician's private life is not a reason to vote either for or against him or her. In the United States, too, Trump's two divorces, considerable age gap with his third wife, and even a recorded conversation in which he lewdly discussed groping women did not prevent his victory.

But just days before the French vote, nearly all women interviewed did say they were more interested in Macron, who was a virtual unknown until recently, because his marriage breaks the mould.

French politics has long been dominated by men with younger lovers.

François Hollande, the current president, separated from his partner, Valerie Trierweiler, after a very public affair with an actress 18 years his junior. Former president François Mitterrand took a mistress half his age when he was in his 40s, a younger woman who famously stood near his wife at his funeral in 1996.

“Did men ask anybody when they started marrying younger women?” asked Karin Lewin, an artist with a studio in Montmartre. “Who sets the rules?”

She likes that Macron is shaking up the men's political club.

So do others. “Every single day, I see an older man with a woman his kids' age coming into the hotel,” said Chloe Tournadre, 26, who works at a luxury hotel in Paris.

Lilach Eliyahu, a fashion designer, said the fact that Macron has a wife who “has wrinkles and cellulite makes me think of him as a feminist. He is the opposite of Donald Trump.”

Brigitte Macron is a grandmother and her husband has boyish looks. Melania Trump, who used to model here in Paris, is young enough to be the US president's daughter. The couples have nearly the same age gap: the Trumps were born 23 years and 10 months apart and the Macrons 24 years and eight months.

Le Pen, if elected, would make history as France's first female president, but men turned out in greater numbers for her than women did in the first round of elections, according to polls. In interviews, many women said that although they would like to see a female president, they were deeply concerned about Le Pen's anti-immigrant, anti-globalist views and her party's conservative views on women's reproductive rights. Le Pen, 48, has been married twice. Her partner, a politician who has kept a much lower profile than Brigitte Macron, is 47.

Cécile Alduy, a French professor at Stanford University who is in Paris this semester following the election, said that political spouses in France do not have the same public role as they do in the United States.

“It was so unusual and commented on” when Brigitte Macron joined her husband on stage after he won the first-round vote, Alduy said. Many women find it interesting that Macron is putting his wife in the spotlight, posing for photos with her, even appearing on the cover of a magazine with her in a bathing suit at the beach.

Carla Bruni, the wife of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, was also high profile. But she was a special case, a former model and singer who had dated Mick Jagger and other stars.

The Macrons have also been the subject of jokes and political critics have seized on the age difference to paint Brigitte as a controlling force over “a schoolboy” candidate. Many declare on social media that he is gay - which Macron has publicly denied. A widely circulated mock photo on the Internet purports to show the couple's “first date”: a woman walking hand in hand at the beach with a toddler.

But Alduy said Macron may get a boost from women at the polls on Sunday, not because of his wife's age, but because he talks about women's issues, including gender equality in wages.

“There is a visible difference between them, that's for sure,” said Martine Dumestre, a physical therapist who, at 65, is one year older than Macron's wife. She said a lot of voters don't like either candidate but she at least appreciated that Brigitte Macron commented that this election is her husband's only shot at the presidency, even though he is only 39 - because she will soon look too old.

Emmanuel Macron, the front-runner in Sunday's French presidential election, shares something with President Donald Trump: a 24-year age gap with his wife. The difference is that Macron's wife is the older one.

That cliché-busting fact - a candidate young enough to be his wife's son, rather than old enough to be her father - is a little social “revenge” that delights many French women, including Martine Bergossi.

“Why can't we marry younger men? I date them all the time,” said Bergossi, the stylish owner of Alternatives, a secondhand-couture shop in Paris, who prefers to leave her exact age to the imagination.

“It's normal to see men with younger women,” she said. “So it's rather great to see the opposite.”

France is famous for its laissez-faire attitude toward sex and love, yet the May-December romance between Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron has added a little ooh-la-la to a presidential campaign that is otherwise a deadly serious matter.

Macron, a pro-European Union centrist, is facing off against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, a blunt populist who rails darkly against immigration and threatens to yank France out of the European Union and NATO.

Macron, a former investment banker, is 39 and his wife, Brigitte, just turned 64.

Macron was only 15 when he met Brigitte Trogneux, a married teacher at his high school in northern France who had three children. Macron's parents sent him to Paris to put distance between the teacher who ran the drama club and their precocious son, but their bond lasted, she divorced, and 10 years ago they were married.

Le Pen, if elected, would make history as France's first female president, but men turned out in greater numbers for her than women did in the first round of elections, according to polls. In interviews, many women said that although they would like to see a female president, they were deeply concerned about Le Pen's anti-immigrant, antiglobalist views and her party's conservative views on women's reproductive rights.

Most of the women interviewed said a politician's private life is not a reason to vote either for or against him or her. At the same time, nearly all of them said they were more interested in Macron because his marriage breaks the mold.

French politics has long been dominated by men with younger lovers.

François Hollande, the current president, separated from his partner, Valerie Trierweiler, after a very public affair with an actress 18 years his junior. Former president François Mitterrand took a mistress when he was in his 40s, a decidedly younger woman who famously stood near his wife at his funeral in 1996.

“Did men ask anybody when they started marrying younger women?” asked Karin Lewin, an artist with a studio in Montmartre. “Who sets the rules?”

She likes that Macron is shaking up the men's political club.

So do others. “Every single day, I see an older man with a woman his kids' age coming into the hotel,” said Chloe Tournadre, 26, who works at a luxury hotel in Paris.

Lilach Eliyahu, a fashion designer, said the fact that Macron has a wife who “has wrinkles and cellulite makes me think of him as a feminist. He is the opposite of Donald Trump.”

Brigitte Macron is a grandmother and her husband has boyish looks. Melania Trump, who used to model here in Paris, is young enough to be the U.S. president's daughter. The couples have nearly the same age gap: the Trumps were born 23 years and 10 months apart and the Macrons 24 years and eight months.

Cécile Alduy, a French professor at Stanford University who is in Paris this semester following the election, said that political spouses in France do not command the public attention they do in the United States. “It was so unusual and commented on” when Brigitte Macron joined her husband on stage after he won the first-round vote, she said. Many women find it interesting that Macron is putting his wife in the spotlight, posing for photos with her, even appearing on the cover of a magazine with her in a bathing suit at the beach.

The Macrons have also been the subject of jokes and political critics have seized on the age difference to paint Brigitte as a controlling force over “a schoolboy” candidate. Many declare on social media that he is gay - which Macron has publicly denied. A widely circulated mock photo on the Internet purports to show the couple's “first date”: a woman walking hand in hand at the beach with a toddler.

French Presidential Election Show all 20 1 /20 French Presidential Election French Presidential Election Voters line up to cast their ballots REUTERS French Presidential Election French expats queue along the street outside the Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle to cast their vote in a polling station inside the school, in the first round of the 2017 French presidential election, in London, Britain April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor - RTS13JM5 REUTERS French Presidential Election People line up to vote in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Vaulx-en-Velin near Lyon, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot - RTS13HSP REUTERS French Presidential Election Police patrol polling stations in France REUTERS French Presidential Election Francois Fillon (L), member of the Republicans political party and 2017 French presidential election candidate of the French centre-right, casts his vote in the first round of 2017 French presidential election in Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Christophe Archambault/Pool - RTS13IH0 REUTERS French Presidential Election Benoit Hamon (C), French Socialist party 2017 presidential candidate, is surrounded by photographers as he leaves a polling station after voting in the first round of 2017 French presidential election in Trappes, near Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler - RTS13I0Y REUTERS French Presidential Election French President Francois Hollande collects voting slips before casting his ballot in the first round of the 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Tulle, France, on April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Georges Gobet/Pool - RTS13ITO REUTERS French Presidential Election A policeman walks by election posters near a polling station during the first round of 2017 French presidential election in Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann - RTS13I3A REUTERS French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux REUTERS French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron casts his ballot REUTERS French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron, head of the political movement En Marche !, or Onwards !, and candidate for the 2017 French presidential election, waves hand during in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Le Touquet, northern France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier - RTS13ICH SAA/ French Presidential Election Jean-Luc Melenchon, candidate of the French far-left Parti de Gauche and candidate for the French 2017 presidential election, leaves a polling booth in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe - RTS13IKB REUTERS French Presidential Election Front National leader Marine Le Pen casts her ballot Marine Le Pen (L), French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, casts her ballot in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, April 23, 2017. At R, Mayor of Henin-Beaumont Steeve Briois. REUTERS/Charles Platiau - RTS13IEI REUTERS French Presidential Election Early ballots are read as results continue to come in Reuters French Presidential Election Macron supporters react as results come in early in the evening AP French Presidential Election Supporters of Front National leader Marine Le Pen cheer as early results come in Reuters French Presidential Election Alamy Live News. J21KYW Paris, France. 23rd April 2017. Marcon supporters wave French and EU flags after the announcement that he is the leader in the exit polls after the polling stations have been closed. Supporters of Emmanuel Macron, the Presidential candidate from the social liberal political party En Marche! celebrate the exit polls, that see him in first place, ahead of Marine Le Pen from the Front National in the first round of the French Presidential election. Credit: Michael Debets/Alamy Live News This is an Alamy Live News image and may not be part of your current Alamy deal . If you are unsure, please contact our sales team to check. Alamy French Presidential Election Front National leader Marine Le Pen takes to the stage to address her supporters as fans cheer Reuters French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron greets supporters on Sunday night AP French Presidential Election Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux celebrate the incoming results EPA

But Alduy said Macron may get a boost from women at the polls on Sunday, not because of his wife's age, but because he talks about women's issues, including gender equality in wages.

“There is a visible difference between them, that's for sure,” said Martine Dumestre, a physical therapist who, at 65, is one year older than Macron's wife. She said a lot of voters don't like either candidate but she at least appreciated that Brigitte Macron commented that this election is her husband's only shot at the presidency, even though he is only 39 - because she will soon look too old.