Paris - A try each by flanker Thierry Dusautoir and winger Cedric Heymans and three penalties from scrumhalf Morgan Parra gave resurgent France a 21-16 victory over Wales at the Stade de France on Friday.

Looking for a second successive Grand Slam, Wales led for most of the first half after fullback Lee Byrne sped over for a try which flyhalf Stephen Jones converted to add to a penalty he scored after just two minutes.

The sharp Wales backline looked formidable at times but France, stung by criticism after a lacklustre win over Scotland two weeks ago fought back strongly and harried the visitors incessantly.

Stand-in kicker Parra scored a penalty and added a conversion when Dusautoir profited from a surging run by Imanol Harinordoquy to power over the line just before the break.

"We got them by the throat," said France captain Lionel Nallet. "We spent all week looking at the Scotland match where we didn't run at the line hard enough."

Roared on by the crowd, the Blues came out strongly after halftime, running powerfully and straight at Wales, and Heymans capped off a surging move with a try that was referred to the video referee before being confirmed.

Wales nearly got back into the match, launching waves of attacks on the French line with just minutes to go, but they were held out by a desperate but disciplined defence in the first Friday evening match ever played in the Six Nations.

France coach Marc Lievremont gambled by going into the game without a recognised goal kicker or fly-half and declared he would be labelled a genius or an idiot depending on the outcome.

Hit by injuries and lack of preparation time after club matches last weekend, he faced heavy media criticism but came up smiling and was proud of his players for never giving up.

"It may have been a small miracle but whatever, it's a quite an exploit to beat a Welsh team that is still magnificent and we needed the whole team to put in a great performance," he said.

"Over and above the courage and physical side of it, this was a great tactical performance," he said.

Ferocious but controlled tackling by Dusautoir, debutant centre Mathieu Bastareaud and others in the French side kept Wales on the back foot through the second half.

Parra missed two penalties and a conversion but France put in a much more disciplined defensive performance than they had in their sluggish victory over Scotland two weeks ago.

Wales were unable to capitalise although Jones scored two penalties and his replacement James Hook got another.

France, after a loss to Ireland and their poor performance against Scotland, had been all but written off but they proved the doubters wrong with a plucky performance in front of the delighted home crowd to end Wales's Grand Slam dream.