Also, accounting in French political campaigns are very restricted to ensure fairness between candidates (no more than EUR 4'600 per candidate per physical person, no business donations; the total expenses are capped to ~22m€).

Accounts are checked after each elections by the National Commission on Campaign Accounts and Political Financing; it is an active check, as some of the previous campaigns refunds were blocked because of some wrong doing.

More details available on Wikipedia (translated from FR): https://translate.google.fr/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=...

Shouldn't this be a government expense, and not a campaign expense? Do candidates pay for their own physical security?

Actually, ANSSI (French government agency for the security of IT) gave some workshops to campaign teams.

Source (in French): http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/lection-presidentielle-l-anss...

Wow, so this really was a catastrophic failure on multiple levels. Lotta of self-reflection for some in Paris this weekend!