Pre-print, Working paper: French people are less happy than the average Europeans. Algan and Cahuc (2007) have suggested that this is because they don't trust each other or their institutions. Beyond the issue of trust, numerous European and international surveys reveal that the French are dissatisfied with a wide range of dimensions of their life, and are particularly unhappy with the field of labour relations and income. But France is not an isolated case; it is part of a small group of countries, with Italy, Germany and Portugal, whose inhabitants are less happy than their income per capita would predict. Are these observation the result of an artefact related to the way inhabitants of different countries answer the happiness question? This paper brings some elements of response based on a the European Social Survey.