Hopelessness from the French couple (7)
I believe the answer is:
despair
'hopelessness' is the definition.
(despair is a kind of hopelessness)
'from the french couple' is the wordplay.
'from the french' becomes 'des' (I've seen this in other clues).
'couple' becomes 'pair' (synonyms).
'des'+'pair'='DESPAIR'
(Other definitions for despair that I've seen before include "Abandon hope" , "State of having lost all hope" , "gloom" , "Opposite of 10" , "Complete absence of hope" .)