Good points about French guns, Ted. Because the French never tried very hard to penetrate the US market--and particularly because, unlike the Spanish, they never cut corners to produce "price point" guns for the US market and ended up damaging the reputation of their entire gun industry as a result--there was never any blanket condemnation of the French gun industry, as was (unfairly) applied to the Spanish some years ago. What there was, for the most part, was a lack of knowledge about French guns--with the exception of the quirky Darne, which was simply too quirky for most Americans.
Some of us, however, discovered that more typical (meaning standard break action) French shotguns tended to be quite consistently well-made, even if they were very plain. And they remained real sleepers on the American market for a long time. they still are, to a certain extent, for the simple reason that you can't judge them based on a maker's name--because many of them don't carry a real maker's name. Sometimes no name at all; sometimes the name of the gun shop that sold the gun in question. France is really the best example of "buy the gun, not the name". But you have to be really careful, because without a name, there's no "brand value" to apply, as in the valuation system Don Amos uses for British guns. Beyond Darne, Manufrance, and maybe Verney-Carron, very few Americans have any kind of clue when it comes to French guns. And while that's also true to a certain extent with German and Belgian guns, there are far more famous names to add "brand value" to guns from those countries.
If you want a solid gun, find something French in decent condition. (Quite a few show significant misuse/abuse.) Check for pitted barrels (corrosive primers, because most predate WWII) and heavy trigger pulls. Chokes will often be tight, but that's a relatively cheap and easy fix. Don't pay too much. You can likely score a gun that's better than its equivalent from anywhere else, and for less money. But not as much less as used to be the case.
