I think that Black has a better move order : 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d3 Nc6 and 4.Qe2?! g6 or 4.g3 g6. In the French 1.e4 e6 2.Qe2 c5!? or 1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Qe2 Nc6!? we dont enter the line.

I always thought this should be promising for white. As black I'd rather go for a ...g6 based approach, possibly with e6-e5 at some point. White has some early deviations though - not sure what Jones has in the book.

The sequence 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d3 d5 4 Qe2 Nf6 5 g3 Be7 6 Bg2 Nc6 7 0-0 0-0 8 e5 Nd7 9 c4 ( or transpositions) is recommended by Gawain Jones in his latest book.

It has a lot of merit, since the "normal" attack of Nb1 - d2 - f1 - h2 - g4 coupled with pushing the h pawn up the board can now be played without having problems with Black pawns trundling down the queen side. With correct defence, the "normal" attack doesn't really work, but the advantage of the c4 blockade is that you aren't busted on the queen side.