After arguing cases in both common law courts and civil law courts, it is impossible not to form views on where the common law traditions and the civil law traditions diverge or, conversely, converge. When writing for an international audience, it is tempting to focus on where there is significant divergence, on the basis that what is new or strange to the reader is likely to be of most interest. The author falls victim to this temptation. The subject of this article is the French approach to tort claims by third parties within a contractual framework. French law allows a third party to make a claim in tort based on a breach ipso facto of contract. The subject is one of general commercial interest, with heightened relevance in Europe since the recent coming into force of the European regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations (“Rome II”).1 Under Rome II, the risk of foreign tort laws inserting themselves into hitherto domestic affairs has been significantly increased. Indeed, within Europe, the application of Rome II risks seeing the extreme French law position described in this article applied in surprising ways to defendants and situations both inside and outside of France.