What is a good French-like defense against 1. d4? I enjoy playing the French Defence as black against 1. e4, for the following reasons.


It often creates a closed position without wild tactics
It takes white away from the more familiar lines (1... e5 and 1... c5)
If black survives the attack, black will likely have a better pawn structure for the endgame.
It doesn't involve a kingside fianchetto, which never seems to work out for me.


I'm curious what would be a similar option against 1. d4. I find that when I try to play positionally, looking for long-term advantages, I often find myself in extremely symmetrical, drawish positions.

I'd like a system to play against 1. d4 that is not extremely common and is reasonably safe, and not prone to symmetrical positions.

I'm strictly a club-level player that has no aspirations of being competitive with class-A players.
One option is to play 1... e6 against 1. d4 anyways!

After 1. d4 e6, white doesn't really have a choice other than to transpose into a standard opening anyways.  If white plays 2. e4, well that's just the French Defense that you know and love.  

If white plays something else, like 2. c4 (as most Queen's Gambit players will), then you have a few options: 


Queen's Gambit Declined (2... d5)
You have to be prepared here because white will most likely know a few good openings.  There are some obvious similarities between the French and the QGD (black's light square bishop!), but there are a few key differences that you will need to practice.
Benoni (2... c5)
If you don't want to deal with a symmetrical game, the Benoni is a good option.  However, this is likely to lead to a fairly tactical game after 3. d5 exd5 4. cxd5 d6.  Since you weren't thrilled about a tactical melee, that brings us to the...
Dutch Defense (2... f5)
Although the Dutch Defense doesn't have the best reputation, it fits your criteria: it's not very tactical (at least the Stonewall, the Leningrad is a totally different story!), black will have some positional trumps (namely the e4 square), and it's offbeat enough.  Black's simple plan is to setup pawns on f5, e6, d5, and c6 and then stick a knight on e4.  The whole battle revolves around control of the e4 square, and black has had good results with the Stonewall Dutch.  


After mentioning all that, 1. d4 e6 2.c4 can also lead directly into Indian structures with either 2... Nf6 or 2... b6 (the Nimzo and Queen's Indian respectively).  If you are familiar with one of these openings, this is a good way to try to get a French, but fall back on a main line opening if your opponent doesn't oblige with 2. e4.