The race is now on for voters who deserted the left and right in favor of farmer's son and lawmaker Francois Bayrou.

The choice is now between two starkly different visions for France -- the pro-American hardline ex-interior minister promising swift change or the first woman with an honest chance at becoming the country's leader, a candidate who is promising a gentler approach to reform.

While the conservative holds an advantage over his socialist rival Royal, it won't be a "walk in the park" for Sarkozy even though he is in a strong position heading into the runoff, Bruno Cautres, researcher at the prestigious Institute for Political Sciences, told the Associated Press.

Both Sarkozy and Royal planned rallies Monday night after beating Bayrou to advance to the second round. The congenial candidate placed third on Sunday ahead of Jen-Marie Le Pen, in one of the big surprises of the campaign.

Sarkozy and Royal will face off in a televised debate on May 2, four days prior to the May 6 runoff vote, French channel TF1 reported.

Voter turnout on Sunday was higher than usual at 84.6 percent -- the highest in more than 40 years and just shy of the record set in 1965.

Sarkozy led with 31.11 percent of the votes, while Royal won 25.83 percent, according to partial returns from the French Interior Ministry.

Centrist Francois Bayrou, one of four main contenders, won 18.55 percent of the votes while far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen took 10.51 percent, according to the ministry.

Turnout estimates varied; the Interior Ministry reported 84.48 percent of France's 40 million voters cast ballots in Sunday's first-round vote. News services placed the turnout rate at 84.6 percent.

An IPSOS opinion poll released late on Sunday suggested Sarkozy would win 54 percent of votes in the second round and Royal would secure 46 percent.

Sarkozy told cheering supporters he wanted to rally the French people behind a "new dream." (Watch Sarkozy talking about his vision )

"My dear compatriots, I want only one thing: to gather the French people around a new French dream," he told supporters at his UMP party.

France must now choose between two visions of society in the second round, Sarkozy said.

"By placing me in the lead and Madame Royal in second position, (voters) clearly marked their wish to have a definitive debate on two ideas of the nation, two projects of society, two value systems," he said.

Sarkozy's dream was one of "a fraternal republic where no-one will be afraid."

"I want to say to all the French who are afraid, that I want to protect them against violence, against delinquency, against unfair competition, against outsourcing," the former interior minister said.

Royal called for voters to rally round her, promising to bring France change without upheaval. "I call on all those who ... believe it is possible to reform France without brutalizing it, who want a triumph of human values over the stock market, who want an end to the painful rise of insecurity and precariousness, to come together," she told a rally in central-western France.

"Many of us -- regardless of the first round -- do not want a France ruled by the law of the strongest or the most brutal, sewn-up by money interests, where all powers are concentrated in the same few hands.

"I reach out to all those who believe it is not only possible but urgent to break with a system that is no longer working," Royal said.

Fierce campaign

With incumbent Jacques Chirac standing down after 12 years in office, candidates have tried to assert their credentials as part of a new generation of politicians eager to reshape the troubled country's traditional ways of life.

The next president will inherit a nation on the brink of an economic crisis, struggling with national identity and coping with a poverty-stricken immigrant community still reeling from the 2005 youth riots.

If elected, Royal will become France's first woman president.

While she has run a non-traditional campaign based on family issues, Sarkozy, the son of immigrants, has appealed to right-wing voters by espousing tough policies on immigration.

Pundits expect Sarkozy to soften his image in pushing an agenda based on free-market ideas. Most believe Royal will try to convince middle-of-the-road voters she has the ability to salvage France's economic system while promising to safeguard the country's "social model."

The campaign has been fierce compared to previous presidential races, and the election buzz was inescapable on the streets of Paris, CNN's Jim Bittermann reported.

"Everywhere you go people are talking about the election," he said. "Every taxi driver, every news stand vendor is talking about the election and usually the first question is, what do you think is going to happen?"

What's next?

Whoever takes the helm of this major European economic, military and diplomatic power, France will get its first president with no memory of World War II, replacing the 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, who is stepping down after 12 years.

Both candidates champion change. Sarkozy would be likely to push his anxious nation toward painful change. Royal agrees change is necessary but it must not be brutal.

"I extend my hand to all those women and men who think, as I do, that it is not only possible but urgent to abandon a system that no longer works," she said.

The runoff offers "a clear choice between two very different paths," she added.

Sarkozy told supporters Sunday that by choosing him and Royal, voters "clearly marked their wish to go to the very end of the debate between two ideas of the nation, two programs for society, two value systems, two concepts of politics."

Despite his lead, the former interior minister faces a powerful "Anything But Sarkozy" push by those who call him too arrogant and explosive to run a nuclear-armed nation. He once called young delinquents "scum," a remark that outraged the residents of poor neighborhoods and has dogged him politically.

Royal, a lawmaker and feminist who says she makes political decisions based on what she would do for her children, shot to popularity by promising to run France differently.

But political missteps have prompted many voters to question whether she is "presidential" enough to run France. In one gaffe, she praised the Chinese during a trip to Beijing for their swift justice system.

The winner's task will be tough in the troubled nation, still haunted by the riots by young blacks and Arabs in poor neighborhoods in 2005. Decades of stubbornly high unemployment, increasing competition from economies like China's, and a sense that France is losing influence in the world made this a passionate campaign.

Both Royal and Sarkozy have promised to get France back on its feet -- but offer starkly different paths for doing that.

Sarkozy would relax labor laws and cut taxes to invigorate the sluggish economy, while Royal would hike government spending and preserve the country's generous worker protections.

Sarkozy should be able to count on votes from the far right, whose champion Le Pen suffered his second-worst showing in five presidential elections.

Royal's score was the highest for a Socialist since Mitterrand in 1988. But closing the gap with Sarkozy could be a struggle in round two. Candidates to her left together scored about 11 percent. They immediately swung behind her after their elimination, but their votes alone will not be enough to put Royal in power. For that, she needs Bayrou.

Sarkozy and Royal scoffed at Bayrou as unrealistic throughout the months long campaign, saying he would be incapable of forming a government with ministers on the left and right, or gain a parliamentary majority. Now his supporters hold the key to victory.

"French politics has changed as of tonight and will never again be the same ...," Bayrou said Sunday night after results were announced.