Caro-Kann is more defensive, French allows for more tactics and counterattacks. They're both pretty similar. French is definitely easier to play though. In higher-lever play, the French is focused on playing strong counterattacks and the Caro-Kann is meant to give black a really nice pawn structure in the endgame.
Why choose French over Caro-Kann?
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They seem very similar structural wise early game, except caro-kann seems to allow both the light squared bishop and the dark squared bishop to have some breathing room, whereas in the french the light bishop is temporarly trapped. Any insight here?