The article investigates the usage of electronic journals in 68 French universities members of the COUPERIN consortium. The study is based on statistical data on usage, libraries and journal packages collected by the EPEF project from different sources (publishers, Ministry, survey results), from 2001 to 2005. The article provides information about local metrics for eight packages (serials), e.g. usage trends, requests per package and user, costs per request and user, as related to the scientific specialty of the university (STM; SS&H, multidisciplinary etc.). Whenever possible and reasonable, the data are compared with results from UK and US research. The paradoxical situation of SS&H is discussed. This is the first study on usage statistics in French universities and probably one of the first based on a nation-wide survey. Methodological problems are discussed.