Scotland ended their miserable recent record against France in thrilling fashion as they stunned the tournament favourites in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at Murrayfield on Sunday.
Sean Lamont crossed for two tries, and Chris Paterson kicked two conversions and two penalties as Frank Hadden's revitalised side secured their first victory against the French since the famous 36-22 win in Paris in 1999.
Scotland had scored only two tries in their previous six Six Nations matches against France, and Les Bleus' last visit to Edinburgh resulted in a 31-0 victory - the first time in 27 years that the hosts were scoreless on their own patch.
But Jason White, who became the 20th player to win 50 caps for Scotland, led from the front this time as the Scots played with a decisiveness and accuracy sorely lacking last year.
Bernard Laporte's men were never able to get into their stride - and despite tries from Julien Bonnaire and Sebastien Bruno, their seven-match winning run against the Scots came to an end.
France might have been without Yannick Jauzion - one of the game's most celebrated three-quarters - through a toe injury. But Florian Fritz showed as he darted down the right in the first minute that their intention was still to attack Scotland out wide.
Scotland regrouped, and in the sixth minute France full-back Nicolas Brusque fumbled a fine up-and-under from Dan Parks - given the nod at stand-off ahead of Gordon Ross - which led to a barnstorming run from captain White.
He was stopped just a yard short of the line by some brave French defence. But it was an encouraging riposte from Scotland, who produced their best Six Nations performance last year in Paris before unluckily losing 16-9.
Five minutes later Scotland did open the scoring when Lamont shrugged off Frederic Michalak's weak tackle to cross for his fourth international try, Paterson converting to hand Hadden's men a 7-0 lead.
The home side increased their advantage midway through the half when Paterson confidently stroked over his first penalty of the afternoon, awarded for an infringement from talented Toulouse flanker Yannick Nyanga.
Just before the half-hour mark, Hadden was forced into a switch when Marcus di Rollo left the field injured and was replaced by his Edinburgh team-mate Simon Webster.
It did not disrupt Scotland's rhythm - and after a jet-heeled break from a ruck by Mike Blair - preferred at scrum-half to Lion Chris Cusiter - Paterson chipped over Brusque but was tackled without the ball by Cedric Heymans.
The Edinburgh man kicked the subsequent penalty to increase Scotland's advantage to 13-0 in the 33rd minute.
France got on the board on the stroke of half-time through a Jean-Baptiste Elissalde penalty to reduce the deficit to 13-3.
Hadden made his second change at the interval, Edinburgh's Craig Smith coming on for Borders prop Bruce Douglas.
Once again it did not affect Scotland's momentum as Lamont grabbed his second try of the afternoon on 47 minutes after a text-book rolling maul from Hadden's forwards which travelled almost 20 metres.
Paterson added the conversion to stretch his side's lead to 20-3.
But that advantage lasted less than five minutes as France number eight Bonnaire burrowed in at the corner after Scotland had lost a line-out on their own 22.
Cusiter entered the fray in the 56th minute, owing to a facial injury to Blair, and he soon tempted Elissalde into tackling him from an offside position - but Paterson inexplicably pushed the penalty wide.
He was punished for his profligacy moments later as Elissalde kicked his second penalty to reduce the deficit to 20-11, and Hadden responded by immediately introducing Ross and Scott Lawson for Parks and Dougie Hall respectively.
Soon afterwards, Jon Petrie came on for an exhausted White.
Laporte's men gave themselves hope with a 78th-minute try from substitute hooker Bruno in the same corner as Bonnaire had scored - but Elissalde missed the difficult conversion to leave Scotland surprise winners by four points.
