The attacks articulated by the French media against the " modèle anglais”, seen as a potential blueprint for the post-constitutional EU, and allegedly threatening the survival of the sacrosanct French social model, played a significant part in the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in May 2005, casting uncertainty over the future institutional functioning of the EU. This paper argues that the emphasis laid during the referendum debate on the opposition of the French and British models, reproducing traditional patterns of conflictual rhetoric characteristic of Franco-British relations, reflected a regrettable unwillingness to recognise or investigate any common ground, and pleads for greater efforts to overcome entrenched cultural and linguistic misunderstandings.