The reason that the French oaks have famous names is that they are from very special forests. The tight grain and water tightness required to make good wine barrels has another, once critical, and now nearly forget use. It is used to make ships. The Limousin and Nevers forests were planted by the French Admiralty for the express purpose of building navy vessels. It is one of life's happy coincidences that the decline of wooden boats occured at about the same time that the modern wine industry in France was on the rise.
French oak is denser, with less gallic and vanillic acids.
The latter, vanillic acid is what gives oaky wines that vanilla taste. For the organic chemists in the crowd, vanillic acid is a benzoic acid, and vanillin is a benzaldehyde. Gallic acid gives the wine an astringent character, both of these acids are more present in American oak. French oak is subtle are flavorful, American oak is rich and intense. It is popular in Italy and eastern Europe.