You are looking at after tax and the French pilots tax rates are much higher than ours. For their high tax rate they do get many benefits from their socialized government that to not come out of their salaries including between 40-48 days vacation per year mandated by the government.

For reference:
In 2004 the median household income in the United States was $44,389.

In France the average gross salary was 3,931 € / 5,307 $, monthly in 2006 (or $64,684/year) the average net salary was 1,828 € / 2,468 $, monthly in 2006

So if the quoted top rate is in euros (9700) then the top take home salary is 5.3 times the average income in France.