Every Ten Years, You Can't Trust The French

Sarkozy won male voters, female voters, everyone over 60 (ze social programmes, zay must be solvent!). But look at this:

Preferences by age zigzagged from left to right and back again. The 18 to 24 set strongly backed Royal, giving her 58 percent, according to Ipsos.
But voters in the 25 to 34 years old group nearly equally strongly backed Sarkozy, a conservative, giving him 57 percent.
The vote was 50-50 in the 35 to 44 age group, while voters of 45 to 59 years — the May '68 generation whom Sarkozy recently denounced — chose Royal.
Sarkozy's strongest backing by age group, however, came from voters older than 60. Among those 70 and older, a whopping 68 percent preferred him.