I had trouble playing the Caro, too. I recently decided to explore a new main opening after playing the Sicilian for years. Narrowed it down to Caro or French. But I don’t seem to do well with the Caro. I want to learn it and have success with it, so I bought books on it. But so far the French is giving me easier games. I haven’t given up on the Caro-Kann yet, but reports of its simplicity seem exaggerated.
I strongly advocate the Caro-Kann
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well the french defense is probably more likely to make your opponent throw up a little, so maybe it is the better opening 
i guess that blacks game plan in the french is more obvious- chip away at whites pawn chain, while in the caro-kann the plan is more simply "how do i get my pieces developed properly?" on the flipside the plan to chip away at the pawn chain can actually be more complex in practice than just developing pieces as far as i can tell. but what do i know... i wouldn't play the french in a thousand years.
I tried out the Caro Kann Defense. I don't know if I played it wrong or if I'm just not suited to the opening, but I never got a good position out of it. These days, I play the French because it's cool. When I played the French, I tried Karpov's system but I would always get attacked or lose to a lack of space. Sometimes, people would also exchange against the Caro Kann so I would always get a worse position there too.