This week, bookmakers put the chances of the Front National winning the French election at 33 per cent, a striking rise on the end-of-January estimate of 25 per cent.

The figures echo recent polls, which have Ms Le Pen comfortably reaching the second round but soundly beaten in the May 7 run-off against centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Of course, it does not feel that simple these days. The Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s victory in America left many pundits with their fingers burnt and warning that Ms Le Pen will ride the wave of nationalist populism sweeping the West and pull off the kind of victory that, really, we ought to be expecting by now.

Without a doubt, the scandal that has engulfed Republican primary winner Francois Fillon, hit by accusations he paid his wife hundreds of thousands of euros in taxpayers’ money for work she may not have done, will have given the far-right a boost.

And although he is the front-runner, when it comes to campaigning the relatively inexperienced Mr Macron is an unknown quantity compared to the veteran of the field that is Ms Le Pen. The fact he is yet to come up with an election manifesto has fuelled this concern.

One French political insider still believes, however, the National Front remains too toxic for the French electorate to put her in the Elysée Palace.

Patrick Buisson, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy’s former key adviser and the man he claimed “won” him his 2007 election, has said that the Le Pen brand – not her ideas – will put off voters when the second-round ballot takes place.