The exchange French is why I quit the French. You have two options in it.
1) Play "best moves" which tend to be symmetrical and mind-numbingly boring. You hope white goes for something sub-optimal or wait for them to blunder down the line. I lost a lot when white just plays sound because the symmetry would slowly drive me insane. I did well when white tried to create an imbalance prematurely.
2) Make a concession to white in order to make an imbalanced game either with an early c5 to get the IQP, or aiming for a quick Queenside castle. Thing is white is a tempo up on you with an identical position, so if they're wise to your game they will be a bit better. You get a fighting game though where you can outplay your opponent. For me I did well with this approach at lower ratings, but it faded at higher ratings.
After a lot of shopping around for black responses to e4 I keep coming back to the Sicilian. e6 Sicilians (Kan, Taimanov) share structure similarities to the French, but you'll never face the accursed exchange again.
I've been playing the "Lastrank Gambit" against the exchange French with decent results in bullet games. I doubt it's sound but it's interesting and fun (sometimes).
The "Lastrank Gambit" is 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 c5. In some variations black wants to trade queens even though he's a pawn down.
If anyone wants to experiment with it I'd be interested in your results and impressions.