The history of education in France, with its inherited link between the Republic and the religion of knowledge, produces a specific form of educational functioning, consubstantial to a tradition of selection and a symptomatic lack of what elsewhere is called a curriculum. While the recent introduction of the "common grounding of knowledge and skills for the end of Compulsory Education" ("socle commun") in the French Law of 2006 eventually opened the door both to the teaching of "skills" and to the idea of a curriculum, and potentially created a revolution in powers and knowledge, one can wonder to what extent it was not a drop on a waterproof system. The question is also to see what was the impact of international influences in these developments. In this article, we analyse the reality and the ambiguities over the opening up of French educational policy towards international concerns, both in relation to the reception of PISA in France and to the decisions which led to the common grounding. This analysis allows us to raise key questions about what could be the potential consequences of a possible change of curricular policy.