I don't care how it's done, as long as it tastes good and it doesn't give me headaches the morning after
Hey the canucks: check out what they make in Chambly, they have a pretty good brewery, and most of their beers are very famous in France. They even have cool names, like "Eau bénite", "Maudite", "Fin du monde", "Don de Dieu", etc. These are very tasty ones, a bit acid for some, but it depends. Watch out the alcohol rate: from 9 to 12 degrees
But overall I prefer beers from belgium or germany. More beer and less extra spices and crap. The Chimay make pretty good beers, and the Karmeliet Triple also is one of my favourites. When we're drinking beer, I usually start soft anyway, like, a Leffe, then move on to higher alcohol rates... a common strong beer in France (although I'm not sure it's brewed in France) is "La Bière du Démon" (Devil's Beer) which rates at 12°. It's vitriol. But the strongest I've drank ever was some variety of Eku, 35 fucking percent of alcohol!!! although I could never find it elsewhere since then. But man, this beer is a WMD.