France established a commanding 20-0 lead in the first half thanks to two interception tries from Alexis Palisson and François Trinh-Duc.

In their previous two games, Wales had whittled down a 17-point English lead to just three and overturned a Scottish 12-point advantage.

And they threatened to pull off perhaps the most famous of all Six Nations victories when two penalties from Stephen Jones and Leigh Halpenny's marvellous try brought the home side to within a converted try of the French who were reduced to 14 men.

But replacement Frederic Michalak's penalty restored a measure of breathing space for the French and Morgan Parra's penalty made the game safe despite Shane Williams' last-gasp try.

And Marc Lievremont will breathe a huge sigh of relief as his side held on to keep their bid for a third Six Nations Grand Slam on track.

The opening exchanges saw both teams feeling each other out but disaster struck for Wales on seven minutes.

Attempting to spread the ball wide at pace, James Hook opted to miss out Jamie Roberts with a flat pass only for Palisson to turn on the afterburners and touch down under the post for his first Six Nations try.

Parra had a simple conversion to give France a dream 7-0 lead and they proved they were worth that advantage dominating both the breakdown and the scrum.

Fly-half Trinh-Duc was way off target with a drop-goal effort but on 19 minutes his half-back partner Parra showed far more composure to slot a long-range penalty after veteran flanker Martyn Williams went in off his feet.

The home crowd suffered even more frustration when referee Jonathan Kaplan penalised scrum-half Richie Rees for going in off his feet and Parra ignored the cat calls to put France 13-0 ahead.

Wales could not find their way through a well-drilled French defence and perhaps it was in their desperation to get back in the game that in virtually the last play of the half Shane Williams opted to try and keep the ball alive by offloading on the touchline.

But the winger, celebrating his 33rd birthday, succeeded only in gifting Trinh-Duc to skip away without a Welsh hand being laid on him. Parra converted for a commanding 20-0 lead.

Despite seeming down and out at the break, Wales showed why they can never be written off when Stephen Jones slotted a 46th minute penalty to overtake Neil Jenkins as Wales' highest-ever Championship points scorer.

Another Jones penalty two minutes later suddenly had the Millennium Stadium rocking and the French wobbling.

For all their first-half dominance, France could not gain any possession or territory and lost all sense of composure.

And the visitors would eventually crumble when a quick tap penalty caused panic in the French ranks and eventually the ball came to Shane Williams whose fabulous pass to Halfpenny was finished with ease.

Jones' conversion made it 20-13 and to add insult to injury for the French, Parra was sin-binned in the build up for a deliberate knockdown.

The game seemed there for Wales' taking but Roberts butchered a try-scoring pass to Hook and Michalak's 35m penalty suddenly calmed frayed French nerves.

When Parra, back out of the bin, kicked a penalty with three minutes left seemed to have finally ended Wales' challenge but Warren Gatland's side never know when they are beaten.

Williams saved perhaps the best for last with a fantastic individual score with Jones converting off the post but France learnt the lessons of Scotland's defeat by kicking the ball straight out of play to seal the victory.