Addicted-to-Chess97,
How much time have you spent studying the opening because there are plenty of lines that are open and tactical. I think this common complaint against the French defence is normally made by people who have not spent any time studying it, in which case you can not really complain if you have not found anything interesting to play against it.
I hate it when my oppenent plays the French. It's closed, and not tactical and I usually get lost early. When some one plays the french on me, I'm ready to flip the table and give up right there.
That's why they do it.