Ireland has never been so present in a session of the French National Assembly as yesterday, when 407 deputies voted in favour of ratifying the Treaty of Nice, while only 27 voted against it.
Every one of the nine ministers, heads of commissions and parliamentary groups who spoke before the vote assessed Ireland's rejection of the treaty.
Their discourse conveyed the two radically different visions of Ireland that have emerged here since the Irish result was announced on June 8th.
Gaullist and Socialist supporters of the treaty have portrayed the Irish as a misguided, somewhat selfish people in need of understanding and education. But opponents of the treaty see Ireland as the trend-setter in a Europe that no longer accepts half-baked compromises.
If the French government asked its own people what they thought of the treaty, the former French president, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing, said, "I fear they would answer you with an Irish ballad!"
The record for Hibernophilia must go to the Minister for European Affairs, Mr Pierre Moscovici, who used the words "Ireland" and "Irish" 14 times in 10 minutes.
The Irish "always brought unambiguous support to European integration," Mr Moscovici said.
"For the first time since joining, they have expressed a negative opinion".
Although the French could not be indifferent to the Irish vote, he added, "let us not be more Irish than the Irish."
Mr Moscovici's harshest words were for the French politicians "who seem to rejoice in the Irish vote, in the name of a Europe they claim to want perfect".
In an allusion to the centre-right UDF, which was founded by Mr Giscard, the minister said that these "fervent Europeans" should think twice before "approving supporters of the IRA; religious fundamentalists; neutralists opposed to all form of European or nuclear defence; those who reject enlargement to the east because they think it too costly; or adversaries of fiscal harmonisation".
To consider these people, whom he described as about 17 per cent of the Irish population, "the saviours of Europe" lacked intellectual rigour, he insisted.
Yet, Mr Moscovici admitted, "the Irish vote is in part the expression of questions about the future of the Union, the transparency of its institutions, the need for more democracy and clarity about the exercise of power".
Irish citizens were not the only Europeans to ask these questions, which were legitimate, he noted.
Mr Giscard made the most powerful speech against the treaty, saying it was neither in the interests of France nor of European integration.
France was "the founding country of the European Union," the former president said. "We demand that the place made for her correspond to her importance."
The treaty would increase the size of the Commission while taking away one of France's two commissioners. In the European Parliament, France would have only 72 deputies, while Germany kept 99.
Although the treaty passed by a wide margin thanks to the support of France's biggest two political parties, the Socialists and the Gaullist RPR, the opposition of almost all of the smaller parties, on left and right, has sounded a warning to French leaders.