Two features appear to characterize French development assistance: organizational complexity and a relatively unchanging program. Describing French assistance in such terms, however, overlooks another central and uniquely French characteristic. If le besoin de rayonnement has helped to determine the goals of French assistance, the colonial experience has been crucial in determining the favored clients and the administration of the program. The colonial history has had an important impact on the organizational structure of the French development assistance program. The outstanding features of French bilateral aid are the exceptionally high concentration in the education sector and in technical assistance. The French have made some efforts at teacher training and shifting towards more technical and vocational programs, but much still remains of the more formal variety. Given the centralized and occasionally informal nature of the French assistance programs, it is difficult to describe in detail the procedure involved in the aid cycle.