As someone who plays the French as black, I see this a lot. People who play 1. e4 as white just want a single, easy to learn system to use against the French, so they figure the Exchange and Advance are their best options, because they can force the game into a single variation. They don't like the Exchange, so they go for the Advance.

The problem (for the white player) is that people who play the French as black end up playing the Advance MUCH more often than any other variation because of this. So chances are pretty good that the black player knows the French Advance better than any other variation of any other opening in the game. I know I do. So if you're just looking for a good way to meet the French as white with as little preparation as possible, I'd say the Advance variation is a much worse option than you think. You'll end up playing an opening that your opponent definitely knows much better than you.

On the other hand, if you insist on learning the French Advance, just start playing the French as black, and you'll get plenty of experience with it in no time.

The concept behind this variation's actually pretty simple: After 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5, black plays 3. ... c5, and the rest of the opening revolves around black attacking the d4 pawn. White plays 4. c3, then black plays stuff like Nc6 and Qb6 to add more pressure to d4. The timing of when you trade the c pawns on d4 is important. Black doesn't want to relieve the pressure there too early, but if he waits too long, white can sometimes mess him up with a well-timed dxc5.

As white, one thing you should know is that you should never play Bb5 to pin the c6 knight, in this or any other variation of the French. Black will play Bd7, and you've just given his useless, cramped in bishop something to do. Chances are pretty good you'll end up exchanging your good bishop for either the knight or bishop, which works out well for black either way. So instead of pinning the knight with Bb5, that bishop's best played to d3 instead.

Speaking of which, there's actually a well known trap (that most black players already know and won't fall for), where white pretends to under-defend his d4 pawn by putting his bishop on d3. It goes 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Bd3. Now it looks like the d4 pawn is attacked three times and defended only twice. 6. ... cxd4 7. cxd4 is fine, but if black continues 7. ... Nxd4 8. Nxd4 Qxd4, then 9. Bb5+ wins black's queen. Black just needs to play Bd7 before Nxd4 and he's fine.

Another reason to play Bd3 as white is that if black castles, white can very often play the Bxh7 sacrifice, follow it up with Ng5 and Qh5, and white's usually got a winning attack. See "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" by Murray Chandler for details on how that goes. Seriously. Great book, despite the silly title, and it spends more time on that specific sacrifice than any other topic. One of the main things I learned from that book is to never castle as black in the French, unless white already made the mistake of playing Bb5 and letting me trade that bishop off the board. (Notice a recurring theme here?)

Anyhow, hope this helps.

--Fromper