Centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron is tied on 25 per cent of first-round French election votes with far-right leader Marine Le Pen, although Macron would go on to beat Le Pen in the second round, a Le Monde/Cevipof poll said on Tuesday.

The poll - which surveyed 14,300 people between March 31 and April 2 - said Macron would beat Le Pen in the May second-round vote by 61 per cent to 39 per cent.

Conservative candidate Francois Fillon, whose campaign has been hit by allegations that he paid his wife, a son and daughter hundreds of thousands of euros of public money for minimal work, would come third in the first-round, the poll added.

It said Fillon would get 17.5 per cent of first-round votes, while far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon was seen getting 15 per cent, above 10 per cent for Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon.