Tim,
What's next? "Let's find a name for the Belgians"?
The early pre-Rafale, pre-Eurofighter history isn't that hard to find, although it was obscured at the time by secrecy in Germany and the UK and by a shower of zounds-you-dastardly-Frogs rhetoric out of the UK. The fact is that the requirements were significantly different, for several reasons - including carrier compatibility, the fact that UK and Germany had Tornado, and a unique view of how to prevail in the air battle.
The French claim (and please go ahead and disprove it) that they expect 294 Rafales to cost about as much as Germany's share of Typhoon.