The French pack overpowered their opponents, who beat them 19-14 at Twickenham last week, in the first half and the hosts led 15-6 at halftime.
Winger Yoann Huget scored a brilliant individual try early in the second half to give France breathing space but England regrouped to score late tries through Danny Cipriani and Jonathan Joseph and make the scoreline more respectable.
France struck after three minutes when fullback Scott Spedding converted a penalty given away carelessly by England centre Luther Burrell.
The home side extended their lead with four more penalties from flyhalf Frederic Michalak who became France's all-time leading points-scorer.
The England pack could not get a foothold in the game, a succession of errors ensuring their team did not enjoy any possession in the France half.
England flyhalf George Ford kicked two penalties to keep his team in touch and captain Chris Robshaw admitted his side had made too many errors to compete.
"In the first half we were shocking with our discipline," Robshaw told Sky Sports.
"We gave too many penalties away, but give us credit in the second half we came out and played well but couldn't quite get over the line in the end," the flanker added.
"We can't give teams like France and other quality sides head starts like we did.
"We'll look long and hard at ourselves. We let ourselves down in the first half. We played well in phases but you can't wait for 40 minutes to do that."
England play their opening World Cup match against Fiji at Twickenham on Sept. 18.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
Share
