Emmanuel Macron’s snap election gambit has caught everyone by surprise, not least French holidaymakers rushing to sign up for proxy voting in order to save their summer plans.

At a police station in Paris’ 11th arrondissement earlier this week, a steady stream of citizens were registering their friends and family members to cast ballots in their place so that they could still escape the city on June 30 and July 7 — the two consecutive Sundays when the parliamentary vote takes place.

“I’m privileged to have a place to go to outside Paris,” said Thierry Vila, a 76-year-old novelist who is sticking to his plan to go to his second home in Toulon for a writing retreat. “But there is a political imperative for me to vote,” he said, adding that he was determined to oppose the far right from coming to power.