Early mammalian development is characterized by extensive changes in nuclear functions that result from epigenetic modifications of the newly formed embryonic genome. While the first embryonic cells are totipotent, this status spans only over few cell cycles. At the blastocyst stage, the embryo already contains differentiated trophectoderm cells and pluripotent inner cell mass cells. Concomitantly, the embryonic genome becomes progressively transcriptionally active. During this unique period of development, gene expression pattern has been mainly characterized in the mouse where embryonic genome activation (EGA) spans over a single cell cycle after abrupt epigenetic modifications. To further characterize this period, we chose to analyze it in the rabbit species where, as in most mammals, EGA is more progressive and occurs closer to the first cell differentiation events. In this species where no transcriptomic arrays were available, we focused on genes expressed at EGA and first differentiation and established a 2000 genes dedicated cDNA array. Screening it with pre-EGA, early post-EGA, and blastocyst embryos, dispatched genes into seven clusters of expression according to their regulation during this period, and revealed their dynamics of expression during EGA and first differentiation. Our results pointed to transient properties of embryo transcriptome at EGA, not only due to the transition between maternal and embryonic transcripts but also to the transient expression of a subset of embryonic genes whose functions remained largely uncharacterized. They also provided a first view of the functional consequences of the changes in gene expression program.