This study investigates the acoustic production of the phoneme /R/ in French as a foreign language, as spoken by Egyptian learners. The apico-alveolar pronunciation of this phoneme has been substituted by the dorso-velar sound in the Hexagon, but both pronunciations are still used outside France. In this regard, the research problem examines the free variation of the sounds [r] and [R] for Egyptian learners of French. Although the native language of those learners has both the apical and dorsal sounds, they represent different phonemes. Based on field surveys, the study examines learner's preferences and perceptions for each of the sounds in question. The analysis also includes value judgments accorded to phonetic variants and to other learners who choose one variant over another. The impact of teachers' practice is taken into consideration, as well as the phonetic systems of both Arabic and English, the first foreign language learned by Egyptian learners.