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The great social classes – bourgeoisie, working class, etc. – are often mentioned in France but not really shown. The article proposes an empirical framework able to test their sociological relevance without partially presupposing this relevance. These big social classes are searched in governmental survey data about contemporary French society. At the occupational level, Emploi survey (Insee, 2008-2016) show a blurry ternary division between valued professions, depreciated ones and intermediate ones, with a fourth category of self-employed professions – but the gradation between occupational statuses appear more clearly than these boundaries. At the level of households, Budget de famille survey (Insee, 2011) shows no evidence of discontinuity and suggests that even if this was due to imprecise data, then what would appear would not be the traditional social classes.