<blockquote>French speakers who use it are very hard to find, everyone here in Paris uses [ʀ] (which, next to a voiceless consonant or at the end of an utterance, becomes the voiceless trill in various combinations with [x], but never a voiced fricative).</blockquote>
Fair enough, I'm nowhere near being an expert in French phonetics. That's just the way I learnt to transcribe it at uni. Plus I have to admit that I was too lazy to check it thoroughly before hitting 'send'. I've just had a quick look in the dictionary though. Turns out they (<i>Hachette</i>) agree with you. I also wikied it, but to no avail - their explanation is rather vague. While [ʁ] is listed in the French IPA chart, the additional footnote plays it safe by stating '<i>Selon le locuteur, [ʁ] peut être remplacé par [χ], [ʀ], [x], [ɣ], [r] ou [ɾ]</i>' (without further information).
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