A French question...?

Because ale is originally an English drink, the word has been borrowed, along with quite a few other English words, into French (e.g. le shopping, le fast-food, le milk-shake etc.) If you asked for "une bière anglaise" you would be understood, but it's common to just use the English word.

There is a word for a pale ale in French. You ask for "une blonde" in a café-bar.

I have checked my notes from one of the BBC French courses, which say "une bière is beer, usually of the light lager type,though bière brune (literally "brown beer") also exists".

This probably doesn't answer your query about lack of distinction between top and bottom fermented beer. My French friends couldn't explain it either, so perhaps this distinction has been regarded as not important. I have been in France and New Caledonia, but not French speaking Canada, so I can't help any further on the question.

Thats the ways things are in different languages.