Unlike other national movements in Central Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, the Romanian national awakening was unique in being as francophile as it was romanianophile. Parallel to the revived emphasis upon the vernacular language and the exhumation of Romanian customs and folklore, French language and culture penetrated widely into the Romanian-speaking regions and were even encouraged. The examination of this paradox opens up considerations that are at once scientific (French as a Romance language being a model for the re-Latinization of Romanian), emotional (admiration and affinity towards a sister nation), and identity-related (belief in the existence of common elements of identity). It also allows us to better understand the fact that, for two centuries now, Romania has had a tenacious tradition of writing in French, which can in no way be understood solely or even primarily as a “migration literature in French”.