Above is a chart of the "yield" on German and French government debt. Much like US Treasury "bonds", "bills", and "notes", the European debt also have specific names. The German bond is called the "bund", while the French bond is called the "BTAN".
The "yield" charted above refers to the interest rate charged by the market on this debt. Usually, when the economy is doing well, investors charge a higher interest rates for governments to borrow, because the private sector sees lots of other good opportunities to put its money. When the economy isn't doing well (like now), investors charge the government just a little to borrow, because they don't see anywhere else to put their money (If you read Krugman, you get this).
But notice something about this chart.