French defense Advance varation 4. c4?!

I played 2 games today in blitz and both I played the french which I have been dabbling with after accidentally ending up in one when intending to play the Tarrasch defense.

Both games started with ..

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c4 cxd4 5. Qxd4 Nc6

Strange... one was on pogo.com the other was at FICS. There is nothing that amazing about these two games just that they started with the same moves which I believed to be bad for white. Not a mention in MCO-13 or play the french... but I didn't look that hard either. Fritz give me -0.35 so I am already and after Qxd4 -0.69 so it is just strange that two people would choose something that appears counter intuitive and not good.

here are the two games

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This game was just a giant who stinks less game... at around move 39 I started counting reserve moves trying to determine who would have to give up opposition... and I figured I might be able to pull of a win... and at the very least I should be able to draw now... I went on to win despite the pgn viewer not being able to show the pawn promotion?

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