France flyhalf David Skrela endured a desperate night with the boot as a below-par Australia earned a smash-and-grab 18-13 win in Paris to stay undefeated on its European tour.
Toulouse No.10 Skrela was barracked by the Stade de France crowd after missing five penalty goal attempts that ultimately decided a tight, nervy contest.
Australia was second best but its opportunistic finishing was deadly, hooker Stephen Moore and winger Peter Hynes scoring the tries either side of half-time.
Flyhalf Matt Giteau kicked two penalty goals and a conversion as the Wallabies made it three wins out of three in November, following on from victories over Italy and England.
The French were granted a penalty try at the end of the first half, with Skrela converting that but he could land just one of his six penalty attempts overall.
Fullback Maxime Medard had put the hosts 13-10 up with a dropped goal in the 52nd minute but they could not push on from that, despite plenty of possession.
Skrela will earn all the headlines for the wrong reasons, and to top off an awful night for him, he was yellow-carded at the death.
The Australians somehow went into the break 10-7 ahead despite posing very few problems in a lively but error-strewn first half.
They had been forced into a last-minute change, centre Ryan Cross pulling out just before kick-off and Digby Ioane drafted off the bench and into the starting line-up.
It meant a backline reshuffle, with Ioane going to the left wing, Drew Mitchell reverting to fullback and Adam Ashley-Cooper filling in at outside-centre, where Cross had been down to play.
If Skrela had found his range in that first half, France could have been well clear by half-time, but instead he incurred the wrath of the notoriously fickle Paris crowd and the Wallabies made hay.
Skrela and Stirling Mortlock traded early penalty misses before Giteau landed a 29th-minute three-pointer to give the Australians a barely deserved lead.
Having produced nothing up until that point, the tourists were given a timely lift and they scored the match's first try soon after.
Ashley-Cooper made the inroads down the right wing and the ball was quickly recycled out to Moore, who barged over from close range. Giteau converted.
Skrela's miserable night with the boot continued when he hooked wide two more penalties in the final seven minutes of the half, earning jeers from the crowd.
But France was granted a lifeline in the half's last act when referee Craig Joubert awarded a penalty try after a creaking Australia scrum was forced to infringe cynically on its own line.
Even Skrela could not miss the conversion in front of the posts and with the half-time hooter sounding immediately, it was game on.
The beleaguered Skrela was given a sympathetic cheer when he nailed a penalty in the 46th minute to bring the scores level and France was well in the ascendancy by then.
Medard then booted an audacious 40-yard dropped goal, the effort needing the say-so of video referee Giulio De Santis, to give Les Bleus the lead for the first time.
It did not last long. Australia was handed a bit of go-forward when France was penalised twice at the breakdown and the visitors found themselves in enemy territory.
They often make the most of the slightest chance and they did so here, Giteau and Mortlock allowing Hynes to go over in