Scotland headed into the game having opened the competition with back-to-back wins for the first time in the Six Nations era.
However, its hopes of setting up a potential Grand Slam decider against Ireland was ended as France bounced back from a 32-19 defeat to Andy Farrell's side in its previous outing.
France was ahead within five minutes through Roman Ntamack, with Thomas Ramos adding the extras, and things went from bad to worse for Scotland shortly after when Grant Gilchrist was sent off for a high tackle on Anthony Jelonch.
The host extended the lead to 19-0 with tries from Ethan Dumortier and Ramos, though it too wsas down to 14 men when Mohamed Haouas saw red for a head-on-head hit on Ben White.
Huw Jones reduced the deficit prior to the break before going over again shortly after the restart to spark hopes of a Scotland revival only for a Ramos penalty to stretch France's advantage to 11 points.
Finn Russell then barrelled over before converting his own try to cut the lead to just four and his team got the ball back with less than two minutes to play.
Scotland needed to go almost the full length of the field but a penalty handed possession back to France and Les Bleus capped the victory through Gael Fickou.
